Regional Key Account Manager

After a 15-year career in teaching and coaching, Chris transitioned to a life of wine in 2012, taking a position in hospitality with Robert Mondavi Winery. In the years since, he has diversified his experiences within the industry by way of education and working in the vineyard, cellar, visitor’s center, marketplace, and boardroom. He was honored to serve as marketing manager with world-renowned importer Martine’s Wines, sharing the stories of over 50+ brands from France, Italy, and Portugal, as well as a few domestic wineries. In recent years, Chris led the team at Passalacqua Winery in the Dry Creek Valley as director of sales, where his team distinguished itself as an industry leader in virtual experiences and high-touch hospitality programs.

Currently, Chris serves wineries as the regional key account manager for Coravin. He also writes for K&L Wine Merchants, teaches WSET courses at Napa Valley Wine Academy, and coaches for WISE Academy. He has been a featured speaker at wine industry events, such as the DTC Wine Symposium, Wine Business Monthly’s Innovation + Quality, and the Idaho Wine Commission’s annual meeting. In his “spare time,” Chris and his wife Dolores own and operate Puppione Family Wines–a small winery brand they started to celebrate the birth of their family and honor their traditions.

Believing that every person is an experiment of one, Chris aspires to be a designer of moments who engages and transforms each guest and business partner. Chris currently resides in the Russian River Valley with his wife and two young children.