Wine Enthusiast Adds Two New Tasters in California

Wine Enthusiast Magazine expanded its editorial team in California today with the addition of two new contributing editors, Matt Kettmann and Jim Gordon, who join veteran contributing editor Virginie Boone.

"Wine Enthusiast now rates more California wines than any other wine magazine in the world, and the addition of such renowned journalists and tasters as Matt and Jim, who will be working alongside our established editor Virginie Boone, is a perfect completion to our editorial commitment in this extremely important market,” says Adam Strum, Editor and Publisher of Wine Enthusiast.

Contributing Editor Virginie Boone has been with Wine Enthusiast since 2010, and will review and report on the wines of Napa and Sonoma for the magazine. Sonoma-based Boone began her writing career in 1997 with Lonely Planet travel guidebooks, contributing to titles on South America, Northern California, France and America's Deep South. Travel assignments led her to California-focused wine coverage, including regular features for the New York Times regional newspaper Santa Rosa Press Democrat, for which Boone has been a contributing wine writer for several years. She is also the author of Napa Valley and Sonoma: Heart of California Wine Country, and a regular panelist and speaker on wine topics in California and beyond.

Jim Gordon, a 30-year veteran of the wine industry, will review and report on wines from Mendocino, Lake and Contra Costa Counties, Livermore Valley, Lodi, Central Valley and the Sierra Foothills for Wine Enthusiast. Napa-based Gordon has been the editor for winemaker and grapegrower media company Wines & Vines since 2006, and also directs the annual Symposium for Professional Wine Writers at Meadowood Napa Valley. He was also editor-in-chief of the James Beard Award finalist book Opus Vino (2010) and of 1000 Great Everyday Wines (2011), for which he covered Mendocino and Lake County wines, among other topics. Additionally, Gordon was editor-in-chief of the former wine lifestyle magazine Wine Country Living and managing editor of Wine Spectator.