Event Judges

The Paso Robles Rotary Club has been able to line up the most-respected cadre of wine and food judges in its ten years of the Winemakers' Cookoff event. Set to judge the event are:

Judges' Bios

Michael Cervin has been involved in the wine industry for more than a decade as a writer, judge and educator. He's written about wine for Decanter, Wine Enthusiast, Wine & Spirits, Central Coast Magazine and other publications. He's the restaurant critic for the Santa Barbara News-Press and his weekly radio show, Cervin It Straight, exclusively about wine spirits and beer, airs on KZSB AM-1290."

Laurie Daniels - A resident of the Santa Cruz Mountains, Laurie Daniels has been a journalist for 30 years.  Her weekly wine column is published in several California newspapers, including the San Luis Obispo Tribune, and her work has appeared in magazines such as Food & Wine, Wine Country Living, Wines & Vines and The Wine Enthusiast.  She's also a regular correspondent for the Appellation America Web site and a frequent judge at wine competitions.

Kathy Marcks Hardesty, a freelance wine and food columnist, has covered the California Central Coast culinary scene for 12 years. An alumna of the California Culinary Academy in San Francisco, graduating in 1998, she worked for the famed chef Wolfgang Puck when he opened Postrio Restaurant in San Francisco in 1989. After more than a decade in the restaurant industry, Marcks Hardesty left to become Wine Tasting Coordinator for Wine Spectator magazine. After working with Wine Spectator's critics for seven years, she relocated to the Central Coast in 1996 and began writing her wine column in New Times of SLO that year. She has written the weekly Cuisine column ever since. She writes the monthly wine column "Uncorked" for Central Coast Magazine and is a frequent contributor to Wines & Vines, a nationally distributed wine industry magazine. Over the last 16 months she was co-host of the weekly show Grapevine Radio, but recently left to begin writing her first book, a guide to the Central Coast Wine Country.

Ian McPhee, a renowned North County chef, has combined his love of cooking, natural culinary talents and entrepreneurial spirit to create a successful career. McPhee has been a local fixture for 15 years. Calling himself "head cook and bottle washer" at McPhee's Grill Templeton, Ian features a solid and varied menu complemented by one of the area's finest wine lists. McPhee recently decided to double his success by opening a companion restaurant, McPhee's Grill Avila Beach, in South San Luis Obispo County.  

Robert Whitley host of the "Wine Talk" column, syndicated nationally by the Copley News Service and published in major newspapers such as the San Diego Union-Tribune, the Bergen Record and the Trenton Times. Robert also is publisher of Wine Review Online (www.winereviewonline.com), an online wine publication that draws upon the expertise and writing brilliance of many of the top wine and food journalists in the United States. Whitley oversees three major international wine competitions - the innovative Critics Challenge, the San Diego International Wine Competition and the Monterey Wine Competition - as well as numerous wine tasting events, including San Diego's annual Wine & Roses Charity Wine Tasting. Robert does two weekly radio shows - Whitley On Wine and The Gourmet Club - that can be heard on the WEB or podcast at www.signonsandiego.com.