Wine, Wit, and Wisdom

Dr. Jennifer Broderick, CSW hiking the vineyards of Germany!

Dr. Jennifer Broderick, CSW, grew up in two college towns:  Lawrence, Kansas, then Middletown, Connecticut, where her father was a professor of Political Science.  She studied English at the University of Hawaii (where her father also taught for a time), then switched paths and received her undergraduate degree in Social Work from South Connecticut State University.  From there she spent several years in the restaurant business in Connecticut and Massachusetts.  Graduate degrees came later in life, with an MBA from University of Phoenix in 2010 and an Ed.D. in Higher Education Leadership from Johnson and Wales University in 2016.

Jennifer’s experience in the restaurant trade is both wide and deep;  she had a long career as a general manager, managing partner, proprietor of some large corporate restaurant chains, and she even did a 10 year stint as a dry cleaner (so if you need a wine stain taken out, just ask).

Dr. Broderick joined the faculty of Johnson and Wales University in 2012, and is presently an associate professor in the College of Culinary Arts at the university’s Harborside Campus in  Providence, Rhode Island, and has served as the department chair for Beverage and Dining Services since Edward Korry, former president of the Society of Wine Educators (SWE), retired.

For eight years, Jennifer has taught beverage and dining courses to freshmen and sophomores as well as capstone dining course to seniors.  She also teaches leadership, human resources, and research courses in JWU’s College of Online Education. Having had to continue her learning while fully employed, Jennifer is a proponent of learning and teaching online.  Last summer she was the faculty leader for the JWU Study Abroad 500 Corks Sommelier program in Germany and France; in March, she’ll be leading students on the volcanic wines Study Abroad program in the Azores.

Dr. Broderick is an honored member of the JWU faculty.  She was recognized with the Distinguished Scholarship Award in 2015, 2016, and 2017, and she received the Dean’s Award for Professional Development in 2017.  Additionally, she has been working hard on her professional credentials:  she earned her Certified Specialist of Wine (CSW) in 2013 (with a shout-out to Edward Korry’s preparation class and Miss Jane’s Bubbly Professor materials).  She is a Certified Hospitality Educator, holds the WSET Level 2 in Spirits, and is working toward her Certified Specialist of Spirits (CSS) with the Society of Wine Educators.

Jennifer counts SWE as a significant influence in her life and she is excited about keeping up the association.  She has been a volunteer at the summer conference every year since the 2014 conference in Seattle, and genuinely enjoys working with Shields Hood, the SWE office team, and the other volunteers.  As Jennifer puts it:  “I am inspired by those who have studied wine for many years, and I feel honored to be surrounded by such knowledgeable people; it is because of my involvement with the SWE that I’ve truly become hooked on learning more about wine!  I truly appreciate the incredible opportunity that I have, to further my wine studies and wine appreciation by continuing my participation in SWE events.”

Guest post written by Reverend Paul Bailey

If you are a SWE certificate holder and would like to be featured in our “On the Radar” series, please contact our Director of Education and Certification, Jane A. Nickles: jnickles@societyofwineeducators.org

Eric Henry, CSW, CWE

Having grown up in a military family (as a child he lived in South Korea for five years), and having enjoyed differing careers, Eric Henry, CSW, CWE, came to wine with a wealth of life experience.  He worked as a waiter and bartender at a Tex-Mex restaurant while attending college in San Angelo, Texas, in the late 1970’s.  At the time, the only wines served at the restaurant were Riunite, Lancers, and some Gallo jug wines; for a long time, he thought Chablis was a Gallo product because the menu offered “Chablis”—back then many Americans called any white wine Chablis.  Most fittingly, today one of his favorite wines just happens to be…Chablis.

After graduation, Eric undertook a successful advertising career in Los Angeles.  Eventually, he got into elementary education.  For nearly two decades, he worked as a 5th grade teacher in Chicago and the surrounding suburbs and eventually became a school principal.  After leaving public education, he took a job as a brand ambassador for the east coast winery Tomasello and began promoting their products to Chicago Whole Foods stores.  This in turn led him to found his own wine promotions agency in 2010.  More on that momentarily.

As it happened, Eric’s husband, who also works in the wine business, was preparing to take the CSW and needed a study partner, and that introduced Eric to the Society of Wine Educators.  Eric passed both the CSW and the CWE on his first outing, for which he credits being methodical and disciplined in his studies.  He read a good portion of the recommended reading list, practiced identifying scents with an aroma kit, and purchased the faults kit. Eric practiced semi-blind tastings at home and at a local wine bar in Dallas for six months.  He also attended the boot camp just before taking the CWE.  He is a teacher by profession and a life-long learner and a man with a curious mind, so the progression, the work, the continual improvement, was quite natural.

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Now about his company.  In 2010, while still in Chicago, Eric launched a small wine and spirits promotion agency called Summit Wine Tastings.  He began the company with only one client, but as word of mouth spread, his clientele grew.  In 2016 he and his husband returned home to Texas, where his firm—now operating out of Texas and Illinois—conducted more than 5,000 wine tastings in 2019.  He is able to partner with both large and small wineries because he has a unique vision for his company:  to take an educational approach with tastings, being sure that all his tasting representatives are wine enthusiasts themselves and that they can share accurate, helpful information with customers.  Although uncertain of this, Eric believes he may be the only CWE who owns a wine and spirits promotion agency.

In future, Eric hopes to continue learning, teaching others about wine, and improving his business, “building brands one sip at a time.”

Guest post written by Reverend Paul Bailey

If you are a SWE certificate holder and would like to be featured in our “On the Radar” series, please contact our Director of Education and Certification, Jane A. Nickles: jnickles@societyofwineeducators.org

Annie Edgerton, CSW, CSS

“I often say, many people have a hard time finding one thing they want to do for a job. . .I found two!  And I am so fortunate that the nature of both jobs allows me to do them simultaneously.”  Annie Edgerton, CSW, CSS, is that fortunate soul.

On the one hand, she is a professional performer, having been in the cast of Mamma Mia on Broadway and in the worldwide touring company of Kinky Boots.  She has a yearning to sing for every Major League Baseball team, and thus far she has sung the ‘National Anthem’ or ‘God Bless America’ for 25 of the 30 teams!

And then there’s wine.  Annie lives in New York City, where she works as a wine appraiser and consultant with her father, William H. Edgerton.  He was the one who taught her how to approach wine appraisals before she was even old enough to legally drink. In the ensuing years she absorbed much about the world of wine, and started teaching classes in 2003 (the first one for her castmates on a rainy day off during a national tour).  And it was around that time that she realized she needed to deepen her education—so, she jumped in with both feet.

Annie earned her Certified Specialist of Wine (CSW) certification with the Society of Wine Educators in 2011, the WSET Level 3 Advanced in the same year, the Certified Sommelier designation from the Court of Master Sommeliers in 2014. She just recently earned her Certified Specialist of Spirits (CSS) and the WSET Level 4 Diploma. She is now working toward her Certified Wine Educator (CWE) and plans to apply to the Master of Wine program.

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Meanwhile, Annie has been able to combine her performing skills and her love of wine as the host of ‘Broadway Buzzed’ and ‘Wine Minx:  Uncorked’ on YouTube.  She is working toward creating programming for television and/or major streaming platforms on the topic of wine.

Writes Annie: “What I hear most often from participants in my wine classes is: ‘I love wine, I just don’t know that much about it.’  So outside of the appraisal work, my main focus is helping fix that!”

Annie’s association with the Society of Wine Educators (SWE) has been a fruitful one.  She has presented three seminars at conferences.  In 2015: ‘Lets Talk Turkey,’ about the indigenous grapes and international blends from that country.  In 2018, she offered ‘Outlier States:  Wine Gems from the REST of the Country,’ featuring wines from Maine, Arizona, New Jersey, Indiana and Missouri.  Last year, she and her father presented a seminar called ‘Heat, Floods, Fakes. . .and Skunks: the Art of Wine Appraisal.’  And she is on deck to present two seminars at the 2020 conference.

Throughout, she has followed her conviction that the best presentations are those which are personal in some way, which share a unique perspective beyond what is often encountered in trade seminars.  She finds the SWE certifications to be very strong and the educational materials up to date, detailed, and helpful.  And her expressed hope for the SWE is even wider industry recognition and respect.  To that end she is on the Membership Committee, and will likely run again for the Board, with the goal of helping the leaders of the SWE attract experienced, vibrant, diverse young members from all aspects of the industry, who will in their turn help move the organization into the future and become leaders in global wine industry thought and practice.

Annie may be contacted through her website or her blog, Wine Minx.

Guest post written by Reverend Paul Bailey

If you are a SWE certificate holder and would like to be featured in our “On the Radar” series, please contact our Director of Education and Certification, Jane A. Nickles: jnickles@societyofwineeducators.org

Madison Kreamer, CSS, CWE

One Saturday morning when she was ten years old, Madison Kreamer happened upon a cooking show on television and was so entranced that from then on she could always be found in the kitchen.  She was, it seemed, destined to work in some capacity in the hospitality industry.  She thought about going to culinary school but wanted the complete college experience and the ‘southern charm and highly regarded hospitality program led me to Auburn University.’  Madison has said that she doesn’t like to stand still, and her years in college were certainly full of exploration into the world of hospitality:  working at Dean and DeLuca on the December/January break every year; being a culinary intern at a fine dining restaurant in Alys Beach, Florida, between her sophomore and junior year; and pursuing an event planning internship in New York City between her junior and senior year.

In the midst of all these internships, she had the opportunity in 2016 to study in Ariccia, Italy, a small town outside Rome.  And it was there that she discovered the vast world of wine.  She describes the wonder, the romance, of wine in this way: ‘Each bottle of wine has its own story, representing timeless dedication and hard work.  One bottle of wine can bring together individuals from all walks of life and create memories to last a lifetime.  Enjoying a bottle of wine truly reminded me of the joy I received from cooking.  After spending hours in the kitchen, there is nothing quite like sitting around the table, conversing, and enjoying a delicious meal with friends and family.  It was the hard work and the reward that I enjoy so much.  To me, wine represents the same hard work and reward.’  She was on her way to a career in the wine industry.

Returning to the States, she took her first wine course at Auburn, which built a strong base of wine knowledge and aided her in passing the Introductory Sommelier exam.  Enter Trinchero Family Estates.  Trinchero sponsors seven hospitality programs around the country, including one at Auburn, for students to visit Napa Valley.  During the trip, participants are sponsored to take the CSW exam and are introduced to the wine industry through various educational seminars.  Madison visited Napa in her senior year and lost her heart to the place.  Accordingly, after graduation she packed up her car and moved to Napa to be a Wine Education Intern for TFE. It was a six month internship, which she describes as ‘hands down the most fun, challenging, rewarding job I have ever experienced.’  She dove in head first, under the mentorship of Barry Wiss, Vice President of Trade Relations for TFE and former president of the Society of Wine Educators.  With his guidance, and much study and hard work, she has advanced to become the Wine and Spirits Education Manager for Trinchero, and has had the opportunity to take and pass the CSW, the CSS, and the CWE.  It is worth noting that she believes that the CSW and the CSS are certifications that every wine professional should strive for in order to prepare themselves as industry professionals to educate consumers about their products, and she is appreciative of the SWE for helping her build up her wine knowledge and expertise.

Madison aims to continue building her resume with additional wine certifications, but she is most excited about simply becoming more knowledgeable about wine and communicating that love to others. The SWE has been important part of her wine experience along the way, and she is looking forward to being more fully involved with the SWE in the future. She cherishes the camaraderie in Napa Valley as people together explore the world of wine.  (And she still loves to cook, too!).   In her words: ‘If you were to tell me that I would be working in the wine industry ten or even five years ago, I would have thought you were crazy.  I used to think an open bottle of wine had a shelf life like vodka and was not even sure how red wine got its color, but its funny how things work out.  Today I could not be happier to be in the wine industry and to work for such a great company.’

Guest post written by Reverend Paul Bailey

If you are a SWE certificate holder and would like to be featured in our “On the Radar” series, please contact our Director of Education and Certification, Jane A. Nickles: jnickles@societyofwineeducators.org