Karen MacNeil

Karen MacNeil is an American author, journalist, wine educator and consultant based in Napa Valley, and the only person to have won every major wine award in the English language. MacNeil is also the creator and chairman of the Rudd Center for Professional Wine Studies at the Culinary Institute of America in St. Helena.

MacNeil has published The Wine Bible, a book 10 years in the making, and was the host of a 13-episode PBS series titled Wine, Food and Friends with Karen MacNeil, for which she won an Emmy. The show was done in tandem with the publication of a companion book, Wine, Food & Friends. MacNeil was also wine correspondent on NBC's The Today Show, has published articles in a wide range of publications, and works as a private wine education consultant.

Career

MacNeil's first article, on the subject of the best butter on offer in New York delis, was published in The Village Voice and shaped the direction of her career. Her transition from food writer to wine writer came about in the mid-1970s, when she was commissioned by Elle magazine to write a wine article. In 1991 she signed a contract with Workman Publishing Co. to write a book on wine, The Wine Bible, which was released in 2001. A 910 page book, it has sold more than 550,000 copies to date, making it the single best-selling wine book in the U.S. Her second book was Wine, Food & Friends (2006).