Paul Wagner

BIOGRAPHY: PAUL WAGNER Paul Wagner studied sociology and education at U. C. Santa Cruz and classical guitar at the Royal Conservatory of Music in Seville, Spain. He has been an instructor for Napa Valley College's Viticulture and Enology department for the past twenty-five years and lectures at the Culinary Institute of America at Greystone. He is also a guest lecturer at many universities, including the Wintour MBA program in Europe, and has spoken at more than eighty conferences throughout the world on wine, wine tourism, wine education, public affairs, and wine marketing. With co-authors Liz Thach and Janeen Olsen, his book: Wine Marketing & Sales, Strategies for a Saturated Market by The Wine Appreciation Guild, won the Gourmand International Award in 2008 for the best wine book of the year for professionals. The third edition of that work was published in 2018. His second book: Wine Sales and Distribution, with John Crotts and Byron Marlowe, by Rowman and Littlefield, won the Gourmand Award for 2019, and a third book, Artisan Public Relations, was published in 2020 from the Wine Appreciation Guild. With Rick Kushman of Capital Public Radio, he hosts “Bottle Talk” at rickandpaulwine.com a weekly conversation about wine. In 2019 he recorded a series of lectures on wine for the Great Courses program at the Teaching Company: “The Instant Sommelier," and in 2020 recorded "A History of Wine in Ten Glasses" for Audible. Paul Wagner has judged more than 100 international wine competitions, is a founding member of the Academy of Wine Communications, a consultant for the International Wine and Food Society in London, a member of the nominations committee of the Culinary Institute of America’s Vintner’s Hall of Fame, and a member of the Wine Marketing and Tourism Conference Advisory Board. He was inducted into the Spadarini della Castellania di Soave in 2005. In 2009 he was honored with a “Life Dedicated to Wine” award at the Feria Nacional del Vino (FENAVIN) in Spain, and in 2018 was given the American Wine Society’s annual Award of Merit, joining such luminaries as Robert Mondavi and Gina Gallo, as well as named the winner of the McPherson Distinguished Teacher Award at Napa Valley College. Mr. Wagner founded Balzac Communications & Marketing on April 1, 1991. His clients there included the Union des Grands Crus de Bordeaux, Caymus Vineyards, Seagram Chateau and Estate Wines, Consorzio di Chianti Classico, Furmint USA, La Rioja Alta A.S., Constellation Wines, Sogevinus of Portugal, and a host of other wine, food, and regional tourism clients. He is now retired from active duty at the agency and enjoys the title of President Emeritus there. He spent the first summers of his life in the Sierra Nevada, where his father worked as a ranger. Since then, he has hiked more than 2,000 miles in the Sierra, and his website, https://backpackthesierra.com, has become a key resource for outdoor enthusiasts. His love of the Sierra induced him to write a series of mystery novels set in that mountain range, and featuring ranger Dan Courtwright. The first of those, Danger: Falling Rocks, is published by Val de Grace books, with a release date of June, 2021. Bones of the Earth followed in January of 2022, and Holes in the Ground in July of 2022. Two others in the series are soon to follow. To watch a Zoom interview with Paul Wagner about his Dan Courtwright mysteries, you can do that here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9pkyuokt8c4 His personal website can be reached at paulwagnerwine.com