by Yuhan Liu, MSFS ’16
MSFS/JD alumna Lisa Granik came to MSFS on October 20, Tuesday and organized a very special wine tasting seminar with students and professors from MSFS. Granik shared her extensive knowledge of wine and answered questions from the audience.
Granik generously brought more than 7 different types of red and white wine, with a special focus on Georgian wines. As Granik said, it is not just the flavor that one tastes in wines. Wines have “personalities, expressions, contents and souls” that convey a sense of place and tell stories. Granik also gave students suggestion on how to start a career in the wine industry.
Lisa Granik is the Managing Director and CEO of Tastingworks, a full-service strategic wine consulting company whose primary clients are family-owned wineries and regions unfamiliar with the US wine market. She was previously a Professor of Wine at the New York Institute of Technology.
In addition to Granik’s JD/MSFS degree from Georgetown University, Granik is also a Master of Wine, a qualification that designates the highest level of professional knowledge of wine. The designation is granted by the Institute of the Masters of Wine in the United Kingdom. Since the Institute’s founding in 1952, only 391 people have passed the rigorous and intense exams required to become a Master of Wine. Of those, 340 are living today across 24 different countries. Lisa Granik is one of only 112 current female Masters of Wine.