Wine Immersion Success Stories – Tricia Conover

Building a Future from the Past

How many of us would like to transition our skills, education, and professional experience into work that we really loved? Given the chance to take a sabbatical from a 20-year career as a senior executive in high tech/software organizations, Tricia Conover did just that.

Tricia has been passionate about wine since the mid-'80s, exploring many of the world's wine regions. So when she got down to the question of what she really wanted to do next in her life, translating many of her most valuable skills and business experience into the world of wine seemed a natural fit. An undergraduate degree in microbiology gave Tricia a firm understanding of the chemistry of wine and fermentation. In addition, having taught sales classes for decades, she could step comfortably into wine education opportunities, and her years in high-end sales gave her the

What Tricia needed was a concentrated course of study that would help bridge her past career to that of her future avocation as a wine writer. She found it in the CIA's Wine Immersion. The program's broad, well-balanced curriculum, condensed timeframe, and top-caliber faculty, along with the opportunity to explore Napa Valley for a month, added up to just the right mix.

Tricia has now launched her own wine consulting firm, Sales Strategy Consultants and is the current American wine writer for Tuscan Magazine, Lucca, Italy under the GrapeStone Concepts moniker. She is also pursuing wine writing and has had her first articles published. "Taking the CIA's Wine Immersion has given me the confidence to transition into a whole new phase of my life," she says. "And the reputation of the CIA has provided instant credibility as I venture into this 'Brave New World' of Wine."

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