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Lyn Farmer has been a comment columnist and tasting panelist for The Wine News since 1990. An avid wine lover since taking a trip during college to the Napa Valley, he has since visited most of the world's major wine producing regions. Today, Farmer is the program director of classical music station WTMI in Miami, Florida, where he also produces a daily radio broadcast on wine. Since 1989, he has also been a restaurant critic for South Florida newspapers and periodicals. He traveled the world extensively during his 15 year stint with the U.S. Information Agency before settling down in South Florida and finding his niche as a print journalist and music broadcaster. His E-mail address is lyn@tastematters.com Harvey E. Finkel, M.D., a contributing editor to The Wine News, regularly contributes commentary on the interrelationships of wine and health, emphasizing objective medical science, to keep readers up to date on this truly hot topic. He is an award-winning wine writer and has contributed to a number of wine periodicals and co-authored one wine book. He writes, lectures and teaches extensively on wine and health as an authority on the subject. Dr. Finkel is a clinical professor of medicine at the Boston Medical Center and consultant at several hospitals in the Boston area. He specializes in hematology and oncology, having published many scientific articles and one medical book. He is chairman of the Committee on Health and a member of the Board of Directors of the Society of Wine Educators. Bob Hosmon, a wine and food writer for 20 years, is currently a senior editor at The Wine News and restaurant critic for Metro Miami magazine and AOL/South Florida Digital City. His weekly wine column, based with the Ft. Lauderdale Sun-Sentinel, is nationally syndicated through the Knight-Ridder-Tribune Wire Service. Hosmon has also written for The Miami Herald, Miami Today, South Florida Business Journal, Culture, The Good Life, National Geographic Traveler, Travel and Leisure and Zagat publications. In addition, he has done television work for CBS and the TV Food Network and serves on the James Beard Foundation's Restaurant Awards Committee. Dr. Hosmon is an associate dean at the School of Communication at the University of Miami. Norm Roby has been covering the California wine scene since 1976. He currently contributes to the The Wine News and is the U.S. correspondent for Decanter magazine, an international periodical published in London. He also writes a monthly column for Smart Wine magazine and contributes articles to several other publications. He is co-author (with Charlie Olken) of The New Connoisseurs' Handbook of California Wines. Published by Alfred A. Knopf, a division of Random House, the third edition is currently in bookstores. Born into a non-wine drinking family, Roby was working on a Ph.D. in English at U.C.-Davis in the late 1960s when curiosity drove him to sit in on wine classes taught by the likes of Maynard Amerine and his colleagues. His interest in wine grew slowly until a year's stay in France fueled it further. Once back from France, Roby worked his way into the wine world. In 1982, after working as an editor and writer for a wine magazine, he joined The Wine Spectator and over the next eleven years Roby authored a regular column on whatever wine topic struck his fancy. A move north, first to Mendocino and later to Northern Sonoma County, coincided with a return to full-time writing. That changed when he became director of Winesong!, a charity wine event held annually in September along the Coast of Mendocino. Our Editor-At-Large: David A. Beaulieu, a frequent traveler to the major wine regions of the world, has logged more than 30 years toward the enjoyment of fine wine. Beaulieu's particular expertise focuses on the wines of California, traveling its wine roads and developing friendships with a long list of notable California winemakers. As editor-at-large for The Wine News and as a senior tasting panelist, he helped establish the scoring criteria for the magazine's BuyLine tasting sessions. Outside of his Wine News role, he frequently serves as a judge at major wine competitions around the country and often wields the gavel at numerous annual charity auctions for Public Broadcasting and National Public Radio events in Los Angeles, San Luis Obispo, Cincinnati and Miami, bringing his wit and knowledge to the podium and setting a lively pace for the festivities. Additionally, Beaulieu is featured on winery promotional videos for a California production company. He is a professional member of The Society of Wine Educators, The Ordre des Côteaux de Champagne and The American Institute of Wine & Food, for which he conducts an annual wine appreciation course. Our Food Editor: Carole Kotkin has a long list of culinary accomplishments. She is co-author of MMMMiami--Tempting Tropical Tastes for Home Cooks Everywhere. She is currently the manager of The Cooking School at Ocean Reef Club in Key Largo and is a frequent contributor to South Florida Gourmet, Coral Gables Gazette, and The Miami Herald. Her work has appeared in Gourmet magazine, American Airlines magazine and Comair Navigator magazine. She was listed by Miami Metro Magazine as one of Miami-Dade's Most Influential Females of 2001 in the hospitality field. She was editor for the first Miami/South Florida Zagat Restaurant Survey and co-founder and chairman of the South Florida Chapter of The American Institute of Wine & Food. She is the former co-owner of Bobbi & Carole's Cooking School in South Miami and also wrote and edited Florida Publix Cuisine and The Good Book of Nutrition when she was a food consultant with Publix Supermarkets. Our Travel Editor: Marguerite Thomas currently lives in New York, but grew up in France and in California. She writes about wine, food and travel for a variety of national publications. Her most recent book is Wineries of the Eastern States. As one of the few people familiar with the hundreds of different wineries in the east, she has been invited to discuss this topic by several organizations and on numerous TV programs. She is also a judge in national and international wine competitions. Our European Correspondent: Clive Coates, Master of Wine, is one of the world's leading wine authorities, In 1984, after 20 years as a professional wine merchant, during which he was, inter alia, executive director of the wines division of British Transport Hotels and set up the much-admired Malmaison Wine Club, he "retired" to set up his own independent fine wine magazine, The Vine. Now circulated throughout the world, in 1992 The Vine received a Special Commendation for its "considerable contribution to the knowledge and understanding of wine" from the Wine Guild of Great Britain. In 1994, he was awarded a "Rame D'Honneur" by the Parisian wine and food bookshop Le Verre et L'Assiette for his activities in promoting good wine, and the first Ruffino/Cyril Ray memorial prize for writings on Italian wine. He has recently been made a Chevalier de L'Ordre du Mérite Agricole by the French government. Additionally, Coates writes for nearly all of the world's serious wine magazines, and is known as an accomplished lecturer throughout Europe and the USA. His book Claret was published in 1982, and Wines of France in 1990. His latest book, Grands Vins, The Finest Châteaux of Bordeaux and Their Wines, was published to great acclaim in February 1995. His next book, Côte D'Or, A Celebration of the Great Wines of Burgundy, will be published in March 1997. Contributing Editors: Barbara Posner Beltrami is a food and wine writer specializing in Italian food and food for the health-conscious. A resident of Long Island, New York, she has co-authored several Weight Watchers cook books and writes frequently for Weight Watchers Magazine and several other food, wine and travel publications. Along with her husband, Edward, she has traveled extensively through Italy and has brought back many authentic experiences and ideas that she weaves into the articles they write together. When she's not cooking or writing about food and wine, she enjoys growing herbs and vegetables and teaching others how to cook. Edward Beltrami is a professor at the State University of New York where he teaches various aspects of applied mathematics. He has been a freelance wine writer with contributions to several magazines, some of them co-authored with his wife, Barbara Posner Beltrami. Having lived and worked in Italy for various periods over the last three decades, he is intimately acquainted with the Italian wine scene and continues to travel there, which permits him to observe first-hand the changes taking place in the production and style of Italian wine. He has also co-authored a book called The Wines of Long Island and frequently cooks with his wife, Barbara, and enjoys tending to their herb garden. Gerald D. Boyd is a San Francisco Bay area-based freelance writer who specializes in wine and spirits, fine food and travel. An avid wine collector since the 1950s, Boyd began writing about wine in 1971 for the Rocky Mountain News, The Denver Magazine and Wine World magazine. In 1979, he joined The Wine Spectator as managing editor and one year later, he was promoted to editor. Boyd resigned from the Spectator in 1983 to return to freelance writing, a career he has followed successfully since then, with a one-year break to serve as editor of Wine & Spirits Buying Guide, now Wine & Spirits magazine. In addition to The Wine News, Boyd contributes regularly to The San Francisco Chronicle, Quarterly Review of Wine, Wine & Spirits, Winestate, Restaurant Hospitality, Beverage and Food Dynamics, Vineyard & Winery Management, Sante, Decanter, LA Style, San Francisco Focus, San Jose Mercury News, Dallas Times Herald, Advertising Age and Winetidings. Gerry Dawes spent 20 years purveying fine wines to top Manhattan restaurants. Up until he left the wine trade to devote full time to his writing, he worked with such noted authorities as Frederick Wildman, Gerald Asher, Robert Haas, Robert Kacher and many top wineries in California, France and Italy. His avocation, however, has always been the wine, food and culture of Spain, a country in which he has lived and traveled for nearly 30 years. Dawes is considered the leading authority in the United States on Spanish wines. In addition to The Wine News, his articles and photographs have appeared in The New York Times and various national wine publications. He wrote several chapters in The Berlitz Travellers Guide to Spain and is currently writing Homage to Iberia (inspired by James A. Michener's Iberia: Spanish Travels & Reflections). Richard Kinssies began his career in the wine industry in 1972 and is one of the most visible wine authorities on the Northwest wine scene today. He is a contributing editor for The Wine News, the wine columnist for the Seattle Post-Intelligencer and writes about wine for other regional and national publications. In 1986, he authored Seattle Epicure, a menu guide to Seattle's best restaurants. In addition, Kinssies operates the Seattle Wine School and also provides training to restaurants and members of the wholesale and retail wine trade and has been retained by the French government to instruct the wine trade on the wines of France. In February 1996, he opened the highly-acclaimed Vina, a wine bar and restaurant located in Seattle's Belltown district. Kinssies is also a familiar personality on local television and radio. From 1991 to 1993, he was featured in "The Wine Guys" which aired weekly on KIRO-TV. From 1981 through 1988, Kinssies hosted the popular "Speaking of Wine" radio program that aired on classic KING-FM. From 1985 through 1988, he hosted "Inside Dining with Richard Kinssies," a two-hour talk show aired on KING-1090 AM. Kinssies began his career by turning a small, Seattle-area wine shop into what was the largest chain of wine shops in the Pacific Northwest at that time. He has worked as sommelier to the best restaurants in Seattle and now acts as a consultant to the restaurant industry. Steve Pitcher (Wine2words@aol.com) is a freelance wine writer based in San Francisco, where he is vice president of the Vintners Club and president of the San Francisco Bay Area Chapter of the German Wine Society. For six years, he authored "Vintner's Choice," which was a prominent column in the San Francisco Chronicle. He now publishes the column monthly in "Sally's Place" on the World Wide Web (http://www.bpe.com). He is also a charter member of the Bon Appetit Magazine Wine Tasting Panel, a forum for wine industry professionals that brings the world's foremost wines and winemakers to San Francisco for programs of extraordinary depth and scope. Dick Rosano writes for a number of national publications about wine and food, including The Washington Post and the American Wine Society Journal. His current credits include editorial positions with the AWS Journal and a new wine newsletter called The Grape Press for which he is also a co-founder, columns in travel magazines like Washington Flyer and Mid-Atlantic Country, and wine columns in Country Inns magazine and the AWS Journal. Mr. Rosano is a member of the American Institute of Wine and Food, the Wine Institute, and he is on the Board of Directors for the Vinifera Wine Growers Association. Quite unique, but related to this experience, is the 20 years that Mr. Rosano has been making homemade wine, about which he has written articles to appear in The Washington Post, Potomac Life, and a continuing column on home winemaking for the AWS Journal. Mr. Rosano's upcoming book on California wine is due out this year.
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