Summary:

Most wine professionals with expert-level certification know their stuff. But wine knowledge alone isn't enough to ensure our success in most wine positions. Whether your job is in wine service, wine sales, wine production or wine education, chances are that one of your biggest challenges is communicating clearly about wine to those with less wine experience. Unfortunately, this is one front on which traditional wine education doesn't provide the answer.

Join one of the country's leading wine authors for a fascinating look at how wine experts can increase their effectiveness by breaking conventions. Discover why reliance on standard practice and industry jargon can sabotage communication and compromise performance. Explore how reorienting our presentations around different priorities can increase engagement and sales.

Learn which common strategies for wine education and marketing can have unintended negative consequences, and what you can do to break the wine world's bad habits and improve your results.

Presenter: Marnie Old

Sommelier and author Marnie Old is a breath of fresh air in the wine world. An engaging performer, she is known for her intuitive explanations of complex wine topics. Marnie's focus on matters of real-world relevance to wine consumers puts her in demand as an expert speaker on wine and beer around the country, most notably as a featured seminar presenter at the annual Food & Wine Classic in Aspen.

Formerly Director of Wine Studies for Manhattan's renowned French Culinary Institute, Marnie also served as the founding education chair for the American Sommelier Association and has taught for New York's Astor Center and Philadelphia's Temple University. A pioneer of online video, Marnie designed a long-distance learning program for the University of Delaware's department of Hotel, Restaurant and Institutional Management.

Marnie is best known as an author, and her most recent publication is the culmination of a decade's work. Wine: A Tasting Course [DK 2014] is a wine basics book that uses visual explanations and a revolutionary infographic system to make sense of wine in relatable terms. It has been recognized with a Gourmand Cookbook Award for Best of USA 2014 in the Drinks Education category. Marnie also pens a humorous wine column for the Philadelphia Daily News called 'Cheap Buzz' documenting hypothetical conversations between the sophisticated sommelier and her penny-pinching blue-collar neighbor Buzz.

Marnie's first book was the acclaimed He Said Beer, She Said Wine [DK 2008], a lively and entertaining debate on food pairing with co-author Sam Calagione, founder of Dogfish Head Craft Brewery. Her second title Wine Secrets [Quirk 2009], is a collection of down-to-earth wine advice from 40 international wine experts. In 2012, Marnie launched her first interactive digital book Wine Simplified , later honored with a Publishing Innovation Award by Digital Book World as the "Best Non-Fiction App" of the year.

Marnie launched her independent consulting venture, Old Wines LLC, in 2001, serving restaurants, consumers and corporate clients. She has earned expert-level credentials, having passed the rigorous Level III Advanced Sommelier exams given by the Court of Master Sommeliers and holding the Advanced Certificate from the London-based Wine & Spirits Education Trust.

Learn more about French wine with the French Wine Scholar certification program. Sign up for the Wine Scholar Guild's Immersion Study Trips.