International Wine Judge, Sommelier, Certified Wine Professional and Certified Specialist of Wine, Debra Del Fiorentino is a consummate wine professional who brings a dynamic energy and expertise to every endeavor she undertakes. Debra is a familiar face at numerous prestigious wine competitions. She currently holds the esteemed position of Director of Wine Competitions for Wine Competitions Management + Productions, a producer of wine competitions for eight unique craft beverage competitions. Born and raised in San Francisco, Debra is a second generation Italian from a large family that originally settled in the Napa Valley. After earning a Bachelor’s Degree in Business from the University of California at Berkeley, Debra opened two gourmet food stores in Marin before venturing into the wine industry. Debra also serves as an independent wine educator and partner at Russian River Vineyards.

Jennifer “JB” Kelly is a wine and spirits executive, certified sommelier, entrepreneur, and wine judge with 15+ years of industry experience. As an experienced sales, marketing, and public relations professional she recently added assistant winemaking to her diverse repertoire.

Jennifer has represented some of the world’s most prominent wine and spirits organizations and held a variety of leadership roles, including famed wine and spirits importer, Wilson Daniels, specializing in French and Italian wines, based in St. Helena, California and Sonoma County-based, Jackson Family Wines working with both domestic and international portfolios. As
founder and President of Luxury Wine Partners, a sales, marketing, and public relations agency located in Sonoma County, she focuses on start-ups, wineries, distilleries, and celebrity brands.

Looking to the future, Jennifer is an aspiring Master of Wine who is currently enrolled in the WSET certification program to earn her diploma. Jennifer’s drive to continue her education originates from the view of staying ahead of the curve in the ever-changing and competitive landscape of the wine and spirits industry.

Jennifer enjoys living in Petaluma, California with her husband Sean. They have three children —Hana, Michael, and Morgan—all living nearby. This adventurous and spontaneous duo enjoy making wine, experiencing local (and not so local) winery destinations, the food scene (near and far), traveling (at a moment’s notice), glamping, volunteering, and supporting local business whenever possible.

Traci Dutton is a sommelier, a wine judge, and the manager of public wine and beverage studies at the Culinary Institute of America at Greystone in St. Helena. She joined the CIA in 1998 as beverage manager and sommelier for the college’s Wine Spectator Greystone Restaurant. Over the course of more than 30 years in the wine world, Ms. Dutton has worked in high-end establishments such as Montrachet, The Striped Bass, and 231 Ellsworth, and has served luminaries as varied as Oprah Winfrey, Kevin Bacon, and Chef Paul Bocuse. She has studied and tasted great wines at vineyards around the world, from Portugal and Austria to Argentina and the United States. Her writing on wines and beverages has appeared in Kitchen & Cook, the St. Helena Star, iSanté.com, and many other publications. In 2011, she was named one of the top wine country sommeliers by Tasting Panel magazine.

Christopher Sawyer is an internationally-renowned sommelier, wine educator, journalist, consultant, critic, and public speaker: He travels the world following trends in wine and participating as a VIP judge in the world’s top wine competitions, and has been featured in a wide range of national media, including USAToday, MSN, NBC, ABC, CBS, Redbook, The Hollywood Reporter, Maxim, National Geographic Traveler, CNN and Esquire. Already legendary in the industry for his encyclopedic wine knowledge and rich wine industry relationships around the globe, Sawyer has been a personal sommelier for an array of luminaries and aficionados, from the Getty Family to the Gorbachevs, as well as for Oscar-winning director and chief creative officer of Pixar-Disney Animation Studios, John Lasseter. Christopher has also become renowned for his unusual and entertaining ability to pair wines with just about any pop cultural experience. His wine pairings for movies are already celebrated, and have been featured in major national media. Sawyer is the recipient of many prestigious awards and industry honors. Voted Best Sommelier of Sonoma County 2019 by Bohemian Magazine for the sixth consecutive year, he is also a recipient of many more prestigious awards and industry honors.

Larry is a retired Sommelier and radio Talkshow Host, with more than more than 30 years of industry experience judging wines. As Sommelier, Larry selected wines for Equus for over a decade. Larry has been judging at the Cloverdale Citrus Fair/San Francisco Chronicle Wine Competition for over a decade likewise, an opportunity for Larry to keep abreast of fine wines from California. He is the talk show host, of CRN talk radio.

Born in Peru, with British heritage, Timo spent much of his life at sea and traveling the world – until he met his partner Ashby and fell in love with Northern California, specifically West County, Sonoma which they have called home for many years now. With an education in Ethics, mastery in Tallship sailing instruction, and a keen eye for organization and developing systems Timo is known today as one of the founding partners, along with his wife Ashby, of Spirit Works Distillery. It turns out Ashby’s passion for the intricacies of whiskey and Timo’s generations-old family recipe for Sloe Gin was just the right ingredients they needed to jump into the craft distillery industry. Open in Sebastopol since 2012, Spirit Works Distillery is celebrated throughout the community for their commitment to quality in their award-winning, grain to glass Vodka, Gins, and Whiskey portfolio. When not managing the distillery Timo can be found walking along Dillon Beach with his dogs or putting together a mean cocktail on the deck at home.