About Norm Roby

Norm Roby’s Background

Wine Writer:

In addition to this blog,  I’m  a columnist and reviewer at http://www.winereviewonline.com  and the U.S. correspondent for Vinosity, a  project founded by Steven Spurrier. Both cover wines of the world and I’m flattered to be part of a very impressive team of wine writers for both websites.

Each week, winereviewonline.com posts new and timely reviews of wines from all major wine regions.

At Vinosity, we believe that wine  is all about people and places as well as wine history and relationships.  Professional wine writing goes beyond rating wines and vintages . It should emphasisze enjoyment, not status, information, not scores.

Quick View of My Previous Experience:

The Wine Spectator: author regular columns and articles & tasting panel (9 years)

Decanter Magazine: regular column, feature articles of US & French wines (15 years)

New York Times, Winetoday.com, member tasting panel (2 years)

Connoisseurs Guide to California Wines, Book co-author. Alfred A. Knopf, 4 editions

Vintage Magazine, Editor and author of Feature articles and columns (5 years)

Freelance Writing: Webster’s Contributing Editor, Penthouse Magazine, San Francisco Examiner, San Jose Mercury News, Better Homes & Garden, Wine News Magazine, Wine Review Online.

Charity Wine Auction Director:

Winesong, Mendocino Coast Hospital Fundraiser, 19 years until 2010

Wine Educator:

Dean, California Culinary Academy, San Francisco (3 years)

Wine Educator:  California Culinary Academy, (8 years)

Wine Educator: San Francisco State University (3 years)

Wine Educator: California Sommelier Academy (3 year

Wine Judge:

San Francisco Annual Wine Competition

Sonoma County Annual Wine Competition

Mendocino County Annual Wine Judging

Oregon Annual Wine Judging

Decanter Magazine: Decanter Wine Awards

My Decanter years began in 1992 and after buying a summer home in France in 2000, I traveled throughout France and eventually published feature articles in Decanter about St. Emilion, Castillon, Bergerac, Minervois, Roussillon, Luberon, Provence, and Alsace.  

With our home near St. Emilion as our base, my wife, Ginny, and I visited every known wine region in France with the exception of Sauternes. And I cant explain that omission. We have also spent many interesting days visiting the wine regions of Spain, Italy, Austria, Portugal, Sicily, Greece, and New Zealand.

I was a judge for Decanter’s annual wine awards event in London, and it was a useful experience to taste wines with the likes of Steven Spurrier and other Brits after my years as a member of The Spectator’s tasting panel.

Also, around 1998, Ginny began working for Cousino-Macul in Chile, so we tasted and traveled our way through Chile and, of course, managed to fly over the Andes and explore and taste our way through Argentina. We made 5 extended wine trips to both Chile and Argentina.

This blog will help you explore and  evaluate the fast evolving sector of online selling. The goal is to identify the strengths and weaknesses of the major players and by so doing to help readers discover a web retailer or two that meets their needs.

Online wine selling is all new stuff, and the battle is underway for your dollar and a piece of the e-commerce pie. It is also a fast-moving world as these sites frequently change their focus as they try to find a secure niche in the market that they can best fill.

This blog also plays close attention to the best wine clubs offered by family-owned wineries.

We frequently focus on the truly exciting  direct to consumer wine clubs.