2025 Meet the Experts |

Andrew Adams

Wine Analytics Report

Editor

Andrew has been a wine industry journalist for more than a decade. He grew up in the city of Sonoma, CA, and graduated from the University of Oregon with a degree in journalism. While a reporter and editor for daily newspapers in Oregon and California, Andrew won awards for investigative and business reporting. In 2009, he left the newspaper industry for a harvest internship at a winery in Napa Valley. That internship led to a full time position in the cellar and laboratory where he worked for three harvests before joining the WineBusiness company in 2011. Andrew is the editor of the Wine Analytics Report, a monthly digital report on the U.S. wine industry featuring original reporting and information from the proprietary databases of WineBusiness Analytics and data supplied by partner research firms. In addition to overseeing all editorial content and data visualization for the analytics report, Andrew is a regular contributor to Wine Business Monthly.

Terri Beirne

Wine Institute

Eastern Counsel

Terri has been Eastern Counsel for Wine Institute since 2008, representing California wineries on legal and policy issues before Legislatures, ABC Boards and other alcohol industry groups in seven mid-Atlantic states where she manages all policy efforts that impact taxation, distribution and shipment of California wine. Among other things, she helped to open Virginia, Maryland, New Jersey and Pennsylvania to wine shipping. Terri speaks regularly at national trade meetings and conferences.

Prior to 2008, she practiced Virginia law at McCandlish Holton representing wine, utility and health care clients before the General Assembly, Administration, regulatory boards and the State Corporation Commission. In 2001 when the federal courts struck down in-state winery shipping, delivery and self-distribution privileges, Terri represented the Virginia Wineries Association in passing the first permit-based wine shipping law using Wine Institute language. In 2007 she lobbied to create the Virginia Winery Distribution Company (VWDC) to counter the loss of self-distribution. The Attorney General named her Special Counsel to establish and license VWDC. Terri received the 2009 Virginia Wine Industry “Person of the Year” award for her efforts. In 2007 she was named a “Legal Elite” by Virginia Business Magazine in the Legislative/Regulatory/Administrative Law category.

Kimberly Noelle Charles

Charles Communications Associates

DipWSET President and Founder

Kimberly Charles’ name is synonymous with wine marketing at its best level. Over her 40 year career she has, through her creative marketing strategies, versatility and natural story-telling gifts, helped brands attain a level of distinction and draw in the marketplace. Her firm, Charles Communications Associates celebrated its 20th anniversary in 2023 and specializes in strategic branding, and corporate social responsibility with a focus on women in leadership. Kimberly holds the Diploma of Wine Spirits from the WSET. A passionate supporter of good causes, she serves on the board of the Glancy Wine Education Foundation, most recently the San Francisco chapter of Les Dames Escoffier and formerly the board of Dress for Success San Francisco and the Society of Wine Educators. She is an omnivore of history and culture and a passionate yogi. Follow her firm on Instagram @AlltheSwirl.

Carlo DeVito

Editor, Publisher, Author, Winemaker & Distiller

Carlo has more than 20 years of experience as a publishing executive. He is a nationally recognized as one of the top wine, beers, and spirits authors and publishers in the world. His authors include Kevin Zraly, Oz Clarke, Matt Kramer, Tom Stevenson, Clay Risen, James Meehan, Salvator Calabrese, Michael Jackson, Gary “Gaz” Reagan, Stephen Beaumont, Amanda Schuster, Kurt Maitland, and Richard Thomas, as well as Wine Spectator, the Wall Street Journal, and the New York Times. His website, East Coast Wineries has more than 1.6 million page views. He is also the winner of the ASWA 2022 Birchenell Award for a lifetime promoting the East Coast beverage industry. He founded and owned the Hudson-Chatham Winery for 15 years, and made wine for two years at Unionville Vineyards in New Jersey. His wines have earned scores of 90+ from Wine Enthusiast, The Cork Report, and other media outlets. He has made collaboration projects with numerous distilleries and breweries. He has been a wine judge in New York, New Jersey, Maryland, and Virginia.

Todd Godbout

Founder, WineCompass.com | Co-founder of BevFluence®

Todd has been exploring the world of wineries, breweries, distilleries, and cideries since 2003, the same year he created WineCompass.com, a tasting room compendium that now includes information on almost 20,000 craft beverage tasting rooms. Since then, he has written over 1,500 posts at the WineCompass blog and leveraged his contacts to create the Virginia Wine TV and MyJoogTV video series. He has participated as a judge for the Maryland Governor’s Cup and World Drinks Awards. In the technology sphere, he developed the Android Compass Craft Beverage Finder mobile application and its equivalent on Amazon Fire and Alexa.

In 2018 he co-founded BevFluence®, an organization that provides a unique ecosystem where products are tasted, shared, and fully experienced. BevFluence® provides these services through influencer marketing campaigns and unique regional experiences through bartender labs and speakeasy events. The team has collaborated with the Michigan Wine Collaborative, Ryland Peters & Small publishing house, the American Cider Association, Visit Nelson County, as well as various guilds, DMOs, and associations.

AJ Greely

Hark Vineyards

Winemaker

AJ has been in the Virginia wine industry for well over a decade and is the current president of the Virginia Vineyards Association. Having worked with and been mentored by many of the great winemakers and viticulturalists in the state, the collaborative nature of Virginia wine is a source of inspiration for her. AJ especially enjoys blending her passion for viticulture, science and the creativity offered by winemaking. To her, the wine in the bottle isn’t just about the varietal, terroir or vintage: it’s about the people involved and the love they put into their craft. Her goal as winemaker is to produce finally crafted bottles where her passion shines through.

Lee Hartman

Bluestone Vineyards

Winemaker

Lee has worked in the Virginia Wine industry for the last 16 years as a grape grower and winemaker for his family’s farm, Bluestone Vineyard. Formerly the President of the Virginia Wine Council, he has always taken interest in the industry beyond his own vineyard, and is currently the President of the Shenandoah Valley Winegrowers Association and is a Board Member of the Virginia Winemakers Research Exchange. As a way of expanding the industry beyond his family’s farm, he also helps neighbors with vineyard management and custom crush programs. This year, his 2017 Petit Verdot was his fourth wine to be included in the Governor’s Case, the top 12 wines in Virginia’s Governor’s Cup competition.

Craig Hosbach

Fox Run Vineyards

Head Winemaker

Born and raised in New Jersey, Craig Hosbach’s winemaking journey began in 2004, close to home before finding his calling in the Finger Lakes of New York. After his time in New Jersey he continued his professional path, accumulating over a decade of experience across multiple wineries within the northern New York winemaking region before assuming the role of head winemaker at Hunt Country Vineyards in 2017. From there, Hosbach honed his craft and shared his boundless enthusiasm for winemaking. Hosbach joined Fox Run Vineyards as head winemaker in August of 2022, infusing his expertise and passion into every bottle. During his tenure, Hosbach’s presence at Fox Run has been apparent. From his first vintage through his current releases, he has received consistent high praise from some of the most well-respected names in the wine industry.

Jacy Lewis

TAMU AgriLife Extension

Program Manager, Viticulture & Fruit

Jacy is a PhD candidate at Texas A&M University in the department of Horticultural Sciences where her research focuses on translating ecological models to management of agricultural pests and disease. She models systems for vectored diseases of Xylella fastidiosa (Pierce’s Disease) and avenues for biocontrol.

Jacy holds a Master of Science in Biology from Texas Tech University where her primary areas of study were Plant Reproductive and Community Ecology. She is currently employed as the Program Manager for the TAMU AgriLife Extension Viticulture and Sustainable Fruit Applied Research Lab.

Jacy started working with Pierce’s Disease in 2005 as part of the Texas Pierce’s Disease Task Force where she explored epidemiology of the disease in Texas as a GIS specialist. She has continued to work in perennial fruit production including viticulture with a strong interest in understanding symptomology, diagnosis, and management of Pierce’s Disease. Complementary interests include sustainable agricultural production, utilizing the EIQ in IPM decision making, the impacts of spectrum modification fabric on growth, production, dormancy manipulation and pest management in perennial crops.

Jana Mckamey

Oregon Wine Growers Association

Executive Director

Jana was promoted to Executive Director in 2020 after serving in various capacities within the organization since 2012. The breadth and complexity of the policy, legal and business issues facing the wine industry keeps her engaged and focused on delivering positive results on behalf of wineries and growers around the state.

Jana has 20 years of international, national and state policy experience in addition to more than a decade of non-profit management experience. Prior to joining OWA, Jana served as Senior Advisor to the European Union Delegation in Washington, DC and in the lobbying practice of a DC law firm. She also brings an agricultural perspective to her role from growing up in a farming family. Jana received her M.A. from Georgetown University’s School of Foreign Service and graduated summa cum laude with a B.A. in History and German from the University of Northern Colorado. She is a recipient of a Fulbright grant to Germany.

In her free time, you will find her biking around Portland, practicing her yoga skills, cooking and gardening, volunteering, reading, and spending time with her young family.

Robert Muse

Muse Vineyards

Owner

Robert is an attorney in Washington, DC with an international practice. He divides his time between the city and Muse Vineyards, one hundred miles west in Virginia’s Shenandoah Valley. Thirty-two acres are planted there to vinifera vines of fifteen different varieties, including Gamay. The wines from those vines are intended to provide a bright red-fruit profile that contrasts with the vineyard’s more traditional Cabernet Sauvignon, Franc and Petit Verdot. Robert’s winemaking is low-intervention with minimal additions beyond cultured yeast. The emphasis at Muse is on the production of interesting wines in the belief that while there will always be a place for a room-temperature, tannic 14.5% alcohol Cabernet Sauvignon, something else is needed – wines that are more versatile, more light-hearted and spirited. Gamay – the topic of Muse’s presentation – is such a wine.

Mizuho Nita

Virginia Tech AREC

Associate Professor and Extension Specialist, Grape Pathology

Mizuho is an associate professor and extension specialist at Virginia Tech’s AHS Jr. Agricultural Research and Extension Center and the School of Plant and Environmental Sciences. His area of expertise is the management of grape diseases. His research and extension objectives are: 1) Development of environmentally, economically, and socially sustainable wine grape disease management; 2) Study in epidemiology (change over time and space) of grape and other plant pathogens; and 3) Effective delivery of scientific information to growers. Mizuho’s research activities include disease risk assessment and surveillance, exploration of cultural and chemical means of disease and vector management, fungicide and fungicide-alternative testing, fungicide resistance examination, cultivar disease susceptibility evaluation, and development of novel diagnostic tools. In his extension program, he uses traditional and technology-based resources to disseminate educational materials to reach growers and Cooperative Extension agents in Virginia and nationally.

Tom Payette | Moderator

Winemaker & Winemaking Consultant

Tom is a hands-on, analytical, East Coast pioneering, winemaking professional with a Food Science Degree. His extended expertise focuses on winemaking, winery and vineyard start-ups and expansions, still and sparkling wine and general winery issues. Tom has over three decades of well-rounded experience in still and sparkling wine production in Virginia along with nine years in ultra-premium Bordeaux varietal wine production in Napa, CA. Tom studied under famed Bordeaux enologist Jacques Boissenot. He was awarded Winemaker of the Year in 1999 by Vineyard & Winery Management and most recently named a “Wine Industry Leader of the Year” by Wine Business Monthly. Visit winemakingconsultant.com to learn more about Tom.

Phil Plummer

Montezuma Winery

Winemaker

Phil has been making wine in New York’s Finger Lakes region for over a decade, spending the bulk of those years at Montezuma Winery, where he has served as head winemaker since 2013. In his time at Montezuma, Phil has led the development and production of a wide array of innovative wines made from grapes, fruit, and honey. Working on such a diverse portfolio of wines has given Phil a wide understanding of what wine can be, and he’s always hungry to learn new winemaking techniques and approaches.

Clark Smith

WineSmith Wines & Consulting

Winemaker, Author

Winemaker for his own WineSmith brand and consultant for hundreds of winery clients, Smith has made wine for 65 vintages (14 in the Southern Hemisphere). He is the author of Postmodern Winemaking, Wine & Spirits Magazine’s 2013 Book of the Year. His Winemaking Fun-damentals Made Easy has received rave reviews from 4.500 winemakers since 1984 and is now available online. Wine Business Monthly named him 2016 Innovator of the Year and in 2018 listed him among the 48 Most Influential People in Wine.

Jeanette Smith

VineSmith Vineyard Services

Proprietor

Jeanette began working in Virginia vineyards in 1981 while studying Horticulture at Virginia Tech. Since receiving her Bachelor’s degree in 1983, she has been involved in the planning, management, and maintenance of wine grape vineyards in NY, NC, PA, MD and VA. Jeanette has worked as a vineyard laborer, manager, agricultural extension agent and consultant. She founded VineSmith Vineyard Services in 1998 and operates her own farm in Shenandoah County, VA.

Christine Vrooman

Ankida Ridge Vineyards

Owner & Vineyard Manager

As co-owner and vineyard manager of Virginia’s Ankida Ridge Vineyards, one of the East Coast’s premier Pinot Noir producers, Christine is passionate about implementing environmentally sensitive practices in the vineyard and balancing the considerations of nature with the pragmatism of producing a crop in the humid Mid-Atlantic regions. She embraces the French philosophy of “la lutte raisonnée,” the reasoned struggle.

Ankida added a planting of Gamay in 2017, with the first commercial crop in 2023. The role of serendipity was prominent in the family’s decision to plant a Pinot Noir vineyard in 2008. This journey is being documented in Christine’s forthcoming memoir, Terroir of a Dream, that tells the story of her journey of creating this family business where her son Nathan became the winemaker.

Christine has been active in the Virginia wine industry and is currently working on a new AVA petition for High Elevation Vineyards in Virginia. She has served on the Virginia Wine Marketing Grant Committee and is enthusiastic about the future of the Virginia wine industry.

The Largest Production Wine and Grape Trade Show and Conference in the East Returns to Syracuse NY

2025 Meet the Experts

Meet the Experts

TUESDAY, MARCH 25

WEDNESDAY, MARCH 26

THURSDAY, MARCH 27

Andrew Adams

Wine Analytics Report

Terri Beirne

Wine Institute

Kimberly Noelle Charles

Charles Communications Associates

Carlo DeVito

Editor, Publisher, Author, Winemaker & Distiller

Todd Godbout

AJ Greely

Hark Vineyards

Lee Hartman

Bluestone Vineyards

Craig Hosbach

Fox Run Vineyards

Jacy Lewis

TAMU AgriLife Extension

Jana Mckamey

Oregon Wine Growers Association

Robert Muse

Muse Vineyards

Mizuho Nita

Virginia Tech AREC

Tom Payette | Moderator

Phil Plummer

Montezuma Winery

Clark Smith

WineSmith Wines & Consulting

Jeanette Smith

VineSmith Vineyard Services

Christine Vrooman

Ankida Ridge Vineyards