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Christine is a noted wine authority with two high level wine degrees. She is a Certified Wine Educator, the top certification from the Society of Wine Educators in the US which requires an exceptional standard of academic knowledge and sensory tasting ability. There are only 180 CWE's in the US. She also earned the prestigious three year Diploma from the Wine and Spirit Education Trust in London (DWS) which places her in a select circle with only 90 other American wine professionals.

Christine was dubbed "The Wine Diva" because she is not just a wine educator, but an entertainer who instructs with a healthy dose of theatrics. Whether speaking about wine as an investment or wine as pleasure, her style is humorous, fast-paced and inter-active. She is able to knock the stuffing out of the stuffy world of wine because she avoids the "vino babble", i.e., talking about how the soil and climate influence the taste of wine, and describing wines in flowery language like, "this wine tastes like blueberries with a whiff of smoky bacon fat and tar."

She is a featured speaker at corporate events all over the US and her clients range from financial icons like Goldman Sachs and Merrill Lynch to retail giants like Macys and Bloomingdales to blue chip companies like AT&T, American Express, Allergan, Pfizer, KPMG, and Pizza Hut.

With the launch of her new book entitled "Secrets from The Wine Diva: Tips on Buying, Ordering and Enjoying Wine," she frequently appears as the keynote speaker at prestigious wine festivals all over the US including Miami, Atlanta, Hawaii, Dallas, Monterrey, and Nantucket to name just a few.

How did she get her start in the world of wine?

"Christine, I think the cellar at the country house needs restocking. Don't spend more than $50,000." These instructions from her boss, a member of the Vanderbilt family, jump-started her journey into the fabulous world of wine. At the time, she was a personal assistant to this prominent New York, social figure, businessman, philanthropist--and serious wine collector. Asked to maintain the quality of his 30,000-bottle cellar, she soon realized that her knowledge of wine was not up to the assigned task, so she began taking courses and attending wine tastings.

Sadly, her employer died suddenly in 1996, and she was left without a specific use for her wine savvy. But by then learning about wine and evaluating it at tastings had become a passion, so she decided to make it her profession. In addition to her not notch academic credentials, she has traveled to every major wine region in the world walking the vineyards with the vignerons and tasting wines with the winemakers, becoming what people call, a "wine expert."

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