LEN NAPOLITANO

Certified in wine by both the Society of Wine Educators and the Wine & Spirits Education Trust, Len Napolitano was enjoying a successful career in engineering when he realized his skills in technical sales, writing, and marketing could be combined with his passion for—and knowledge in—wine. That’s when he exchanged his calculator for a cabernet. In 2001, he began a new profession explaining complexity with clarity in his weekly wine column, Wineology: Intelligence for the Wine Consumer, which appeared weekly in California's Ventura County Star newspaper. Len later became the “wineologist” on TV’s Fine Living Network TV (now Cooking Channel) from 2003 to 2010 giving valuable wine tips to viewers. Since 2002, he has been the wine columnist for Napa and Sonoma Valleys' Wine Country This Week magazine.