Speakers

Below are some of the speakers for our 2022 Wine Media Conference – we will continue to add speakers as they are confirmed, so check back regularly.

Gwendolyn Alley, Journalist 
Wine Predator

Gwendolyn Alley completed the Pacific Crest Trail, climbed Kilimanjaro, parented peregrines, pruned pinot noir, picked petit verdot, competed for the US Wine Team, and poured in the Ridge Vineyards tasting room. With undergraduate and graduate degrees in English, Education, Environmental Studies, and Ecopsychology, Gwendolyn teaches college, writes for online and print publications including the Slow Wine Guide, blogs at Wine Predator which is frequently featured on WineBusiness.com, Wine Predator, loves adventure travel, attends as many industry events in Los Angeles as possible, and graduated from VinItaly’s Italian Ambassador course. She is on the shortlist for the 2022 Jancis Robinson Wine Writing Contest with her essay “Stories of Regeneration”

Paolo Camozzi 
Wine & Food Consultant

Paolo Camozzi, one of the first graduated students at the University of Gastronomic Sciences (www.unisg.it), is the vice-curator of Slow Wine Guide, expert taster and coordinator for Lombardy, Veneto and Liguria areas. He runs wine courses,  to teach the basic knowledge, focus on interaction and conviviality. He currently works as a consultant in the eno-gastronomy sector, supporting food and wine artisan producers, with regard to content creation, event organization, food education in school, project manager for e-commerce companies.

Céline Bossart, Freelance Journalist 
Céline Bossart

Céline Bossart is a Brooklyn-based certified sommelier and freelance journalist covering wine and spirits, particularly the sociopolitical aspects thereof. Her work has appeared in SAVEUR, Wine Enthusiast, Liquor.com, NBCNews, VinePair, Delish, The Spruce Eats, and more.

Laura Donadoni, Journalist 
The Italian Wine Girl

Laura has been a professional journalist for decades, writer and communicator. She founded La Com wine agency, a communication agency based in California, focused on the promotion of wine and operating allover the United States. She is the only Italian woman member of the prestigious International Circle of Wine Writers in London. Laura collaborates with important magazine and guides in the wine sector in Italy and abroad: Gambero Rosso, Tasting Panel, Somm Journal, and more.

Luca Formentini
Podere Selva Capuzza

Wine and music producer Luca Formentini leads the family winery Podere Selva Capuzza as the fourth generation in the business. His strong sensitivity in environmental protection brought him to be the first producer to be awarded as the “green wine maker” by Corriere della Sera in 2021. He’s volunteered as president of several consorzi and associations (Lugana from 2013 to 2019, San Martino della Battaglia from 1989 to 2008 and Strada dei Vini del Garda). He’s been speaker at the Society of Wine Educators, the American Wine Society, Wine Bloggers’ Conference and he’s a regular lecturer at several universities on the subject of sustainability and local tourism. In addition to speaking on the Slow Food, Slow Wine panel, his winery hosted the dinner for the Lugana excursion.

Stevie Kim, Producer of Italian Wine Podcast
Managing Director at Vinitaly International

Stevie Kim was born in Korea and raised in the United States. Today, she lives in Verona, Italy. At first she attended the NYU – Leonard N. Stern School of Business. After settling in Italy, she obtained an MBA at Bocconi University, School of Economics and Management. Later, she achieved a postgraduate specialization in Wealth Management at the University of Pennsylvania – The Wharton School. Stevie is currently working on her WSET Diploma, from the Weinakademie Österreich in Rust, Austria.

As Managing Director of Vinitaly International, Stevie has launched and now coordinates a series of new initiatives connected to the Vinitaly brand. As Professional Wine Groupie, Stevie is always seeking innovative ways to communicate Italian wine – with a strong creative emphasis on social media and educational platforms. In 2017, Stevie produced the Italian Wine Podcast, the first podcast in English dedicated exclusively to Italian wine and its personalities. The show published its 1000th episode this August, 2022 and is now broadcasting seven days a week. Along with books, maps, and videos. The Italian Wine Podcast is part of the “Mamma Jumbo Shrimp” project, an umbrella brand conceived during the COVID lockdown of 2020. The brand represents an ethos, taking big concepts and making them accessible in smaller bites. It also strives to harness emerging social media platforms and bring together a global community of wine enthusiasts. Every week, the Mamma Jumbo Shrimp YouTube channel airs Stevie’s “On The Road Edition” travels to wineries and regions across Italy.

Diane Letulle, Writer
Wine Lover’s Journal

Diane Letulle has blogged at Wine Lover’s Journal since 2007 and is active on social media at @winedinego. She’s written wine and travel articles for Snooth, Palate Press, Broadway World, and Boots and All. Her travel story “Cabin Pressure” is included in Leave the Lipstick, Take the Iguana. She has delivered wine tourism presentations at the Travel Bloggers Exchange, International Wine Tourism Conference, and the Enotourism Conference in Portugal. Diane has drawn upon her professional content marketing experience to develop lightning talks for recent Wine Media Conferences. She loves sharing new wines and has been an adult school instructor since 2008. Diane is currently working on a memoir about her life as a wine blogger.

Marcello Lunelli, Chief Winemaker
Ferrari

Marcello Lunelli is chief winemaker for Ferrari, Italy’s premier source of luxury Metodo Classico sparkling wines. His passion for winemaking was ignited working side by side at Ferrari with his uncle and predecessor, Mauro Lunelli. After refining his skills through hands-on work experience in winemaking regions around the globe, from Europe to South Africa and California, Marcello returned to Trentino, Italy and his family business in 1995.

Marcello was formerly president of the Gruppo Giovani Industriali di Trento and currently holds a top position at Agivi, Associazione Italiana Giovani del Vino. He is president of Format, an educational and human resources association governed by the Associazione Industriali di Trento, as well as a member of the board of directors of the Unione Italiana Vini
and of the Confederazione Italiana della Vite e del Vino. Marcello resides in Trentino with his wife and daughter. At Ferrari, Marcello is pleased to carry on the Lunelli family tradition of fine winemaking, and continues to deliver on Ferrari’s reputation as Italy’s finest Metodo Classico sparkling wine.

Michele Manelli, Owner and Winemaker
Salcheto

Michele Manelli was born in Sassuolo (northern Italy, close to Modena) and raised in Paris. He has been living in Tuscany for more than twenty years. As a vintner in Montepulciano, he founded and developed Salcheto, a wine producing operation, as a model of sustainable efficiency, firmly convinced that businesses in general are the key actors for new social progress. Over the last decade he has been directly engaged in promoting projects in research, development and wine value-chain lobbying oriented to sustainability, such as the “Charter of Montepulciano for the Wine Carbon Footprint” (2010) and the “Forum for Wine Sustainabilty (2013-2015),” for which he acted as co-founder and author of the “2014 Report on Sustainability” (www.vinossotenibile.org). He continued his pursuit of these values as a Founder of Equalitas in 2016, a company controlled by the Italian Federation of Wine Consortiums (FederDoc), which was created to promote sustainable business models in the wine industry and diffuse its culture in the global wine markets. Although devoted to the wine sector, Michele has joined and developed initiatives in the tourism, art and ceramics fields in Italy and abroad.

Antonella Manuli
Fattoria La Maliosa

An entrepreneur in the field of sustainable farming and wine production, Antonella Manuli was raised in Italy, Switzerland and the United States. She finished her university studies in Business Administration in California, where she met and shared in the values of the Organic Movement. She returned to Italy to work in the field of auditing and finance, before landing in the Tuscan Maremma and running, for ten years, the Terme di Saturnia Spa Resort. Fascinated by the territory because of its beauty and unique historical and environmental characteristics, she started searching for the land for an agricultural start-up which has now become the Fattoria La Maliosa organic farm, producing natural wines, extra virgin olive oil and honey. With the agronomist and researcher Prof. Lorenzo Corino she developed the viticultural project since 2013, consolidating and developing together some highly innovative closed-cycle agronomic techniques for an ever greater sustainability of wine and olive production. Their work focusing on a process for the production of grapes and natural wine is now codified with the name of “Metodo Corino” (registered patent and trademark, 2019). She also collaborated with Prof. Corino in numerous cultural dissemination and training projects, including as editor of the book “The Essence of wine and natural viticulture” and as co-author of the essay “Vegetal biodynamics, the future of natural wine“, published by the Istud Foundation – Mondadori University. Her vision and goals are to achieve sustainability not only for the good of the environment but also for people, from workers to consumers drinking her wine and her olive oil.

Francesca Petrussa
Vigna Petrussa

Francesca was born in Veneto from a family of long standing wine producers. In fact her grandfather used to distribute wine in the Trieste region since the first half of 1900. Since childhood she was involved in family dynamics linked to the wine world and the wine production. When her grand father passed away, her grandmother drove the business and Francesca represent effectively the third generation of female management of the vineyard. Francesca studied Architecture in Florence and in 1998, after graduation, moved to London to work as an architect. Her passion for Architecture allowed her to became a senior figure in one of the most dynamic retail companies in Europe leading the global expansion and opening shops all over the world including Russia, India and Japan. But the passion for Architecture could not keep her away from the calling of the wine and in 2011 she moved back to Italy to run Vigna Petrussa with her mother Hilde. With her sparkling personality, international mindset and aesthetic creativity she was the perfect complement for her mum Hilde, which in turn represents painstaking care of the vineyard and the grapes, tradition in winemaking and respect for the rhythms of nature. Together they are driving Vigna Petrussa forward with ever more care for sustainability and quality, a new creative livery which they are taking to new countries across the globe and a feminine touch that you’ll always be able to recognize in their bottles and in their wines.

Giovanna Prandini, President
Ascovilo

Erica Nonni, Managing Director
Nonni Marketing

Erica Nonni runs USA-based marketing agency Nonni Strategic Marketing (NSM). Her team of five is specialized in brand strategy, media relations, social media content creation, sponsorships, new product introduction and trade marketing support for imported wine and specialty food brands that prioritize environmental and social responsibility in their practices and their communications. Current clients include Ferrari Trento, Salcheto, Catena Zapata, TILIA Wines and Taylor & Colledge. NSM has also served many international wine and specialty food brands on a project basis.

Before founding NSM in 2014, Erica served as Marketing Director for a British fine wine merchant and across marketing disciplines with agencies such as Torre Lazur McCann (print/television advertising), Six&Co (digital) and Colangelo & Partners PR (PR/events), working with leading brands like Haagen-Dazs, Diageo Chateau & Estates, Francis Ford Coppola Winery, Marchesi de’? Frescobaldi, Herbal Essences (P&G), Head & Shoulders (P&G) and Mucinex, and institutional marketing bodies such as Wines of Chile, Vinitaly International, Wines From Spain, Wines of Portugal and Wines of South Africa.

Devin Parr, Owner
Devin Parr & Associates

Devin Parr is a leading personality in the wine industry. She is the Founder and Managing Partner of Devin Parr & Associates, a PR, marketing, and content agency in the beverage, travel and tourism space. She holds her Wine and Spirit Education Trust (WSET) Diploma as well as a certification in wine expertise from the Apicius International School of Hospitality in Florence, Italy, and a B.A. in political science and economics from UC San Diego. In 2017, she was named one of Wine Enthusiast Magazine’s Top 40 Under 40 Tastemakers.

She regularly contributes to wine and lifestyle publications, including VinePair, Carpe Travel, WineCountry.com, NapaValley.com, Sonoma.com, The Plum, The Gourmet Insider, and others, as well as her own blog on DevinParr.com, where she covers the business of wine. She is also the creator of the platform Tasty Juice, Please, dedicated to the discovery and promotion of offbeat wine grapes. When she’s not traveling the world in search of wines with high acid and “a certain poopy diaper funk,” she moonlights as an aspiring ninja, pursuing her black belt in Shorin Ryu karate. Devin is based in Temecula, California, where she lives with her husband, two little boys, and two bossy Shih Tzus named Richard and Stanley. Follow her wine, parenting, and martial arts adventures at @thesocalwinegal

Bruce Schoenfeld – Opening Keynote
Contributing Writer, World of Fine Wine

For over 30 years, Bruce Schoenfeld’s frank and informative journalism has appeared in many of the most respected publications that cover wine. For years a contributing editor at Wine Spectator, he spent a decade as the wine editor of Travel + Leisure. He has written for Gourmet, Saveur, Food & Wine and Wine & Spirits, as well as Fast Company and Esquire, and he contributes several long pieces annually to The World of Fine Wine. He has published two books and won two Emmy Awards, and he also regularly writes about sports for ESPN, The New York Times Magazine, and other publications. At home in the Rocky Mountain foothills, he plays basketball, drinks Barolo, and spends as much time as possible with his wife and two sons.

Alberto Tasca, President and CEO
Tasca d’Almerita

Born in 1971, Alberto Tasca is the President and the CEO of one of Italy’s oldest and most prestigious family-owned wineries, Tasca d’Almerita. With his great love for Sicily and the precise goal to promote native Sicilian grape varieties and the most favorable wine-growing areas, Alberto has been investing in different territories across Sicily, optimizing their individual qualities: Regaleali Estate, the heart of the company and the family home since 1830, then Capofaro Estate, in the Aeolian Islands, Whitaker Estate on the island of Mozia, Sallier de La Tour Estate in Camporeale and Tascante Estate on Mount Etna. Narrating the culture of unique territories, their culinary traditions and their anthropological history has now become an integral part of the company’s activity.

In 2010, Alberto embraced a new project, “SOStain – Sustainability in Sicilian viticulture”, a protocol recognized by the Italian Ministry of the Environment. A constant commitment that has resulted in Tasca d’Almerita receiving the “European Winery of the Year” award from Wine Enthusiast magazine and the prestigious Green Emblem from Robert Parker Wine Advocate. In 2020 Alberto became President of the Foundation SOStain Sicily, which has the task of promoting sustainable viticulture in Sicily, to facilitate the sharing of best-practices aimed at respecting the ecosystem. He is in the board of Sicilia Doc Consortium and Assovini Sicilia and he is also Vice President for the Istituto del Vino Italiano di Qualità, Grandi Marchi, where he promotes the culture and quality of Italian wines.