Nicholas Paris

Nicholas Paris is Director, Wine & Spirits Education for the E. & J. Gallo Winery and holds the title of Master of Wine from the Institute of Masters of Wine, Advanced Sommelier from the Court of Master Sommeliers and Certified Wine Educator from the Society of Wine Educators.

Nicholas began his career as a fine wine retailer at Zachys in Scarsdale, New York, later assuming the role of auction coordinator for Zachys and wine specialist at its partner, Christie’s, in Rockefeller Plaza, NY and Beverly Hills, CA. In 2005, Nicholas became a distributor sales representative with Premier and later a manager at Peerless, today part of Empire Merchants, in New York. Two years later, he joined E. & J. Gallo Winery as an on-premise field marketing manager in the Northeast and since then has held a variety of positions at Gallo in sales, public relations, global sourcing, education, brand development and wine blend consulting.

In 2014, Nicholas’ dedication to his ongoing studies paid off when he became America’s 34th Master of Wine. As an influential educator for E. & J. Gallo Winery, Nicholas educates and mentors students from around the world and for various organizations including the SWE, CMS, WSET and IMW. He also supports Gallo’s trade and consumer efforts in the US and internationally in education and consults on brand development and wine blends for several internal and global winery partners. He frequently judges at domestic and international wine competitions including Finger Lakes International Wine & Spirits Competition (NY), TEXSOM International Wine Awards (TX), Bacchus (Madrid), 5Star Wines (Verona) and Decanter World Wine Awards (London). He is very involved in the sommelier community as a former executive board member of GuildSomm, frequent presenter at TEXSOM and host of SommFoundation and Institute of Master of Wine trips to California. He is proficient in several languages.