Michael Alberty writes about wine for The Oregonian/OregonLive and Wine Enthusiast Magazine. He turned to wine writing after 16 years in the retail wine trenches of Illinois and Oregon. He has written about wine for publications based in England, Australia and the United States. He has also published work in the fields of international environmental politics and major league baseball. Earlier in his life he tended bar in Portland, pulled espresso shots in Seattle and made sandwiches with a famous bluegrass banjo player in Champaign-Urbana.

Joel Butler is one of the first two resident Masters of Wine in the North America. He holds degrees in history from Stanford University and the University of Colorado, and is currently the president of the Institute of Masters of Wine, North America, Ltd. Butler has been a highly regarded wine judge for decades and has written on wine for numerous wine publications. He is an award-winning home winemaker and wine educator to trade and consumers, and has been a wine buyer for restaurants, retail, and distribution Butler lives in Seattle, Washington, where he is the co-owner of WineKnow LLC.

Bob Paulinski, MW, stands as one of the foremost authorities in the field of private label wine development. Over the course of more than 40 years in the wine trade, he’s held diverse leadership positions in wine retail across the United States and Australia. In addition, he has extensively traveled the wine world and remains active in wine education and within wine international competitions. In 2002, he became a Master of Wine, a rare achievement shared by only a select group of approximately 50 individuals in North America.