Horn Tooting and The Creation of a Wine Conference

If you'll forgive me, I have something to share about something I've done

Among the things I’ve worked to avoid in the 20+ years of writing Fermentation is tooting my own horn (some publicist, me!). It just seems a crass thing to do and defeats the purpose of what I want to provide here. But I’m going to now…kinda.

I AM SO EXTREMELY PROUD OF THIS LINEUP OF SPEAKERS AND PANELS AT THE UPCOMING NATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF WINE RETAILERS 2025 SUMMIT.

The NAWR Wine Retailer Summit is designed for wine retailers, wine shippers attorneys, compliance professionals, and others who work within the wine retail orbit in the United States. NAWR has produced this Summit for 8 years. This year it is in San Francisco in May.

My job, among other things, is to work with the NAWR Board of Directors to put together the two-day program for the Summit. NAWR strives to create a program that speaks to the current moment, to current challenges, and to systemic issues that fine wine retailers confront. As you’ll see from the program below and those speaking, we did this in 2025.

Of course, as with all professional conferences, the program is only as good as the speakers and panelists who will carry the program. You can call each panel or topic whatever you want. But without the right people on the right panels, the topic and panel will flounder. And this is the source of my pride and horn-tooting.