Episode 15 - Paul Mabray - Wine Industry's Digital Godfather

NAPA VALLEY ACCADEMY
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Episode 15 - Paul Mabray - Wine Industry's Digital Godfather

In Episode 15, we sit down with Paul Mabray, the digital godfather to the wine industry.  We discuss his career and metamorphosis from young beer salesman to one of the leading proponents of the transformation of the wine industry from one that has historically been technology adverse to an industry that needs to embrace the power of digital and social marketing and new routes to the consumer.

Paul Mabray has been a powerful change agent in the wine industry for over twenty years. He has been at the forefront of all major digital trends for the wine industry, working with WineShopper.com and Wine.com when they entered the wine-digital space. He founded two companies that significantly changed the digital US wine landscape, first by introducing winery e-commerce with Inertia Beverage Group that transformed into WineDirect.com pioneering winery e-commerce and then again introducing social media and social customer relationship management with VinTank.com. He is considered the wine industry’s foremost futurist and thought leader, harnessing the power and potential of digital tools and methodologies to move the industry into the future.

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D.W.S., AIWS, FWS, IWP, WSET-Certified, Chief Educational Officer

Christian Oggenfuss

Christian Oggenfuss the founder and Chief Executive Officer of Napa Valley Wine Academy is a passionate wine industry spokesman, and educator. He holds the dipWSET, the highest certification from the London based Wine & Spirit Education Trust and is an Associate Member of the Institute of Wine & Spirits. Christian also holds the French Wine Scholar (FWS), the Italian Wine Professional (IWP), and the American Wine Expert (AWE), certification. He is also one of only 64 Bourgogne Wine Ambassadors in the world.

He brings 20+ years of wine experience to the wine education arena as a marketer and brand builder for wine brands including Stags’ Leap Winery, Etude, Beringer Vineyards, Benziger Family Winery, PlumpJack Estate Winery, Odette Estate, CADE Estate Winery, St. Clement, and V. Sattui Winery.

Christian is a born entrepreneur and has successfully launched wine-related businesses in Switzerland and traveled extensively to all major wine regions in Europe and North America. He is fluent in Schwiizerdütsch (Swiss-German) and English. Additionally, he is a Certified Champagne Wine Location Specialist (Champagne Bureau) and a Certified Port Wine Location Specialist (Port Wine Institute).