Mijenta
Mijenta

Meet The Team

Tasting Panel Publisher Meridith May

Meridith May

Publisher / Editor-in-Chief

Meridith is responsible for the branding and content for The Tasting Panel. As #15 on the list of INTOwine.com’s 100 Most Influential People in the Wine Industry, she has successfully made The Tasting Panel the largest circulated print publication for the hospitality industry.

Meridith is Publisher/Editor-in-Chief of The Tasting Panel and The Somm Journal.

Managing Editor Ruth Tobias

Ruth Tobias

Managing Editor

Ruth Tobias could write before she could tie her shoes, and she’s been chronicling her way through life ever since. After graduating with a BA in English literature from UCLA in 1992, she received an MFA in poetry from the famed Writer’s Workshop at the University of Iowa before heading to Boston University for her PhD in literature.

In Boston, her passion for food compelled her to follow an unexpected course of study. While working to obtain her Professional Chef’s Certificate at the Cambridge School of Culinary Arts, she began writing about restaurants and bars for a range of publications. After signing on as the local editor for Zagat, she left academia to pursue a career as a food-and-beverage writer.

Tobias now lives in Denver, where she continues to write about dining and drinking for local and national media.

Senior Staff Editor Kate Newton

Kate Newton

Senior Staff Editor

Kate Newton joined The Tasting Panel in August 2017 after spending several years in Madison, Wisconsin, where she wrote for a collective of small-town newspapers and was a general nuisance to her coworkers with her frequent and very nitpicky editing suggestions. An Arizona native, she’s a Clippers enthusiast, fledgling Dodgers fan, budget foodie, and pop culture savant (caution to those who venture down the rabbit hole of asking for TV show recommendations) who’s now in charge of keeping our writers on the grammatical up-and-up.

VP and Director Communications and Trade Director Lars Leicht

Lars Leicht

VP of Education

Lars began his professional career as a reporter for The Daily Star in Oneonta, NY. In addition to writing he has long had a focus on Italian language and culture which eventually brought him to Banfi Vintners, America’s leading importer of fine wine. While there, in various roles from sales, marketing, to public relations leadership, over the course 33 years, he represented the portfolio across the U.S., Europe, Canada, the Caribbean, and Asia, working directly with the firm’s Mariani family proprietors and developing an unprecedented hospitality program at their Castello Banfi estate in Montalcino, Tuscany. He has led press trips to Chile and Italy, spoken at sommelier conferences, various cooking schools and culinary universities, and appeared in the movie Somm II: Into the Bottle. Since 1998 Leicht has brought over 100 wine professionals on scholarship trips to Italy for SommFoundation and SommSouth. As founder and de facto “Dean” of Cru College, he has brought Italian winemakers on barnstorming trips across the U.S. for insightful seminars and exceptional tastings. Lars joined The Tasting Panel team in July of 2019.

Stef Schwalb New York Editor-at-Large

Stef Schwalb

New York Editor-at-Large

Stef Schwalb comes from experience in the hospitality, design, culture, business, and technology industries, her short- and long-form work has been featured nationally in a variety of publications, including Boston Magazine, The Alcohol Professor, Honest Cooking, Thirsty Magazine, Bar & Restaurant, Force Brands Newsroom, and more. She is also WSET Level III certified.

Wine and Beer Editor Jessie JABS Birschbach

Jessie “JABS” Birschbach

Wine & Beer Editor

Jessie “JABS” Birschbach is a Certified Sommelier through the Court of Master Sommeliers with a background in fine dining (Spago, Beverly Hills; Mastro’s Steakhouse, Beverly Hills), creative marketing (Signature Creative, Protagonist), and comedy (iO West, UCB LA, National Comedy Theatre). An avid beer enthusiast, JABS is an active homebrewer and belongs to the Pacific Gravity Homebrew Club. Her most recent enterprise involves pairing cannabis strains (and their respective terpenes) with wine and beer. Although she is from the island of Kauai, spending the first six years of her life on the islands, JABS grew up in San Diego, where she received her Bachelor of Science in Marketing from San Diego State University. She currently resides in Los Angeles with her wife and son.

New York Editor Wanda Mann

Wanda Mann

New York Editor

Native New Yorker Wanda Mann began writing about wine in 2008. She is the founder of the website Wine With Wanda and has worked as a freelancer for various publications. She regularly hosts informative, and often humorous, Instagram Live interviews with winemakers and other industry professionals. The daughter of a professional chef, Wanda has always been captivated by the world of food and wine, but it wasn’t until studying in Spain for two years that she began to truly understand wine’s cultural significance. She has since traveled to numerous new- and old-world wine regions. Wanda holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in Anthropology from Pomona College, and in 2015 she earned the Certified Specialist of Wine (CSW) credential from the Society of Wine Educators. She currently serves on the board of Les Dames d’Escoffier New York.

Vice President of Sales and Marketing Bill Brandel

Bill Brandel

VP / Sales & Marketing

A veteran of the wine and spirits industry for over three decades, Bill worked in high profile restaurants and hotels in Florida, Washington, D.C., and Los Angeles before starting his career with Southern Wine & Spirits in the Los Angeles area. After 20 years as an on-premise wine manager, Bill left the distribution industry to start his own wine brokerage.  After two years of working with small, family-owned wineries, he opted out of wines sales to become VP Sales & Marketing for The Tasting Panel and The SOMM Journal. The experience, knowledge and skill set that Bill acquired in the wine sales and service industry made for a smooth transition into the wine and spirits publishing arena.

Anna Russell and Dr Watson

Anna Russell

VP / Finance Director

At The Tasting Panel, Anna handles all things finance and works closely with Meridith May in managing the magazine’s business endeavors. She graduated from the University of San Diego, where she was granted scholarships for both academics and athletics and is currently studying to earn a Master’s degree in Business Administration. As a former athlete she appreciates the camaraderie and team spirit which is such an intrinsic part of the atmosphere at the magazine.

In her spare time, Anna enjoys spending time with her friends, family and her dog, Dr. Watson, watching her beloved Los Angeles Dodgers and scientifically testing wine for the good of the publication.

Dr. Watson (seen above) is The Tasting Panel‘s official Head of Security and is a no-nonsense enforcer of proper behavior.

Event Manager Dawn Verdone

Dawn Verdone

Event Manager

Dawn Verdone is well versed in the event and hospitality industries with more than 20 years of experience. With a BA in Business Communications and Public Relations, she traverses the ever-changing event landscape with ease and professionalism.

Whether it is an intimate wine dinner or a multi-day Somm Camp, no detail is overlooked and provides each guest with the “wow” experience.

A Minnesota native, Dawn now resides in Phoenix, Arizona with her two dogs, Leonidas and Zula, aka “The Bumpus Hounds.” In her spare time, Dawn enjoys hiking, baking, spending time with family and friends and is no doubt a hockey fan.