Speaker. Author. Consultant.

Authoritative

Karen MacNeil is the only American to have won every major wine award given in the English language. These include the James Beard award for Wine and Spirits Professional of the Year, the Louis Roederer award for Best Consumer Wine Writing, and the International Wine and Spirits award as the Global Wine Communicator of the Year. In a full-page profile on her, TIME Magazine called Karen “America’s Missionary of the Vine.” Karen has been named one of the “100 Most Influential People in Wine.”

Dynamic Speaker

Deep global wine knowledge is only part of the story. Karen is considered one of America’s foremost wine presenters—a speaker who can engage and enchant audiences from 5 to 500, and from wine novices to wine collectors alike. Her in-person customized TED-like talks and live virtual wine tastings are accompanied by delicious wines which she personally selects for the event.

Credentialed

Karen is the author of the award-winning book, THE WINE BIBLE, one of the best-selling wine books in the United States with over one million copies sold. The Wine Bible is praised as “The most informative and entertaining book I’ve ever seen on the subject” (Danny Meyer), “Astounding” (Thomas Keller), and “A masterpiece of wine writing…” (Kevin Zraly). Karen is an instructor at Stanford University’s Continuing Studies program where she teaches the course Wine’s Connection to Culture and Place: Stories in a Bottle, and is the creator and Chair Emerita of the Culinary Institute of America’s Rudd Center for Professional Wine Studies which has been called “the Harvard of wine education.”

Media Savvy

The former wine correspondent for the Today Show on NBC, Karen was the host of the PBS series Wine, Food and Friends with Karen MacNeil, for which she won an Emmy. Karen is the creator and editor of WineSpeed, the leading digital newsletter in the U.S. for fast, authoritative information about wine. Her articles on wine and food have been published in more than 50 newspapers and magazines including The New York Times, Town & Country, Elle, and Worth. She was the first Food and Wine Editor of USA Today.

Leader

Karen’s firm, Karen MacNeil & Company, creates customized events and wine experiences around the world for companies and individual groups. Among Karen’s clients are Lexus, Merrill Lynch, Notre Dame University, Disney, LVMH, General Electric, UBS, The Wine Institute, Shearman & Sterling, Singapore Airlines, and YPO/WPO, as well as numerous law and biotech firms. In 2019, the Lux Life awards named Karen MacNeil & Company the Best Dynamic Wine Consultancy in the United States.