A Career Drinks Writer and Consultant with Passion and Style

Liza Zimmerman was destined to be in the wine, spirits and food business. Her parents gave her “Brandy” as a middle name; most likely at the behest of her grandfather, “Pop,” who was an accomplished bartender with a fully stocked home bar. As a child growing up near New York’s Central Park, Pop often took his only granddaughter to Tavern on the Green, the park’s renowned restaurant, which she preferred over the nearby zoo.

Since that time, Zimmerman has been writing, educating and consulting about wine, cocktails and food in both Italy and the United States. She fell in love with wine on an early trip to Italy and has been a confirmed Italophile ever since. She returned to live in her beloved Rome in the early 1990s, where she launched her restaurant review column Ethnic Rambles Around Rome, chronicling the Eternal City’s non-Italian restaurants in the bimonthly Wanted in Rome. In 1994, she went home to New York to pursue greater food and wine editorial opportunities.

She has since published hundreds of stories in the United States in national magazines, such as Wine Spectator, Wine Enthusiast, Wine & Spirits and The Magazine of La Cucina Italiana, as well as in European publications. Her cocktail column, In Good Spirits, appeared for a year in the Seattle Weekly. Her recently launched wine and spirits blog, found on her website, www.lizathewinechick.com, goes by the same moniker. Her wine and cocktail columns are currently featured in Wine Business Monthly, Oakland Magazine, Caviar Affair and In the Mix, and she regularly writes for Fodor’s on restaurants and hotels.

Zimmerman is one of very few career journalists in the wine education field. She spent the bulk of her editorial career in New York at M. Shanken Communications, revitalizing Market Watch, the trade arm publication to Wine Spectator. She also spent a year heading up sales and marketing for Vinum Wine Importing and Distributing in Seattle. Her unique approach is down to earth, accessible and fun. She strives to demystify wine for people so it can play a regular role in their lives. Her events are targeted at making business gatherings of all types more fun, edifying and conducive to networking.

“You did an unbelievable job. The audience (our clients) was completely engaged and appreciated the value you added to the overall program.”
Caroline Stone, Senior Marketing Manager, Unisys Corporation, Bell Bell, Pennsylvania

She has visited all the world’s major wine growing and spirits producing regions, from Mendoza in Argentina and the up-and-coming southern Italian region of Puglia to Eastern Washington State’s Walla Walla Valley. She is one of only approximately 100 people in the U.S. to hold the Diploma of Wine & Spirits (D.W.S.), the three-year program that is the precursor to the Master of Wine. She uses both her in-depth academic background on hands-on experience to teach wine classes of all levels at some of the San Francisco Bay Area’s top wine schools, such as Copia, The American Center for Wine, Food and the Arts and he Culinary Institute of America’s Rudd Center for Professional Wine Studies, both in the Napa Valley.

In addition to her educational and editorial endeavors, she also consults with top restaurants to create wine programs, special dinners and other events. She regularly conducts wine education programs with Fortune 100 companies and others such as Microsoft, Wells Fargo, Barclays Global Investors and Unisys, and has judged a variety of wine and spirits competitions, including the San Francisco International Wine Competition, the Portland Indie Wine Festival, the Bacardi Bartender & Chef Cruise Competition and The Ministry of Rum Tasting Competition at Tales of the Cocktail. She has also been a wine and cocktail lecturer on Crystal Cruise’s World Cruise program.

Zimmerman graduated from Northwestern University and the University of Florence with a double Bachelor’s degree in American History and Italian Language and Literature. She currently resides in San Francisco and is fluent in Italian, speaks passable Spanish and gets by with wine French.

Liza’s Biography & Press Kit

Download Liza’s biography: liza_zimmerman-bio.pdf

Download Liza’s press kit: liza_zimmerman-press-kit.pdf

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