The home of LearnAboutWine.com

About Me: Ian Blackburn
Founder and Educator
LearnAboutWine.com

Certified Wine Professional and innovative wine industry spokesperson, Ian Blackburn drinks wine for a living. Since it was established in 1995, Ian Blackburn has worked on building LearnAboutWine into the leading source for wine education and events in Southern California. LearnAboutWine was the first business of its kind: a wine education and event website dedicated to the education, service, and enjoyment of wine.

Ian's passion began at an early age while attending the prestigious Cal Poly Pomona - School of Hotel and Restaurant Management. During this time, Ian helped open Checkers Hotel in Downtown, Los Angeles and had the distinct honor of working with famous Chefs like Bradley Ogden, Jerry Comfort, Joachim Splichal and Thomas Keller. Towards the end of school, Ian moved to Patina Restaurant where it was then named the number one restaurant in Los Angeles and Top 10 in the United States.

Following a stint as a Restaurateur in New York and Culinary School, Ian spent the next 11 years working at all levels of wine distribution. Ian began training restaurant managers and bar staff on wine and found he had a knack for it. He developed a curriculum called "Wine Camp" and started teaching it to consumers in 1995—LearnAboutWine was born!

Today LearnAboutWine has developed into Southern California's premier company for wine education and events. With an increase in the number of classes and wine events held, Ian continues to focus on demystifying wine for everyone from the casual drinker to the potential collector. LearnAboutWine events include the wildly successful, monthly "TASTE" Series, a large-scale wine social; "10 Wines Blind," a sensory evaluation class; "Sunday School," an academic wine course; and "Passport," an international wine class. Over 30,000 students in Southern California have participated in LearnAboutWine's core class "Wine Camp," an introduction into wine, and it is considered one of the top introduction courses in the region.

With a database of over 26,000 subscribers, Ian's following and notoriety has grown with the popularity of wine. He has taught classes at Cordon Bleu, Cal Poly Pomona, UCLA, The Learning Annex, and other prestigious universities, as well as being a keynote speaker for many private and corporate events. Ian has also taught private education for corporate clients such as Amgen, Pfizer, Disney, Nestle, Deloitte, Latham Watkins, Bank of New York, Washington Mutual, and Quinn Emanuel. Ian's passion for wine and entertaining makes him one of the top spokespersons in the United States. Ian enjoys creating wine lifestyle events in order to get more people involved in the enjoyment and appreciation of wine. Commissioned by Wiley Publications to write The Pleasure of Wine in 2004, Ian is currently working on his second book at his home office in Downtown Los Angeles. For more information about Ian Blackburn and LearnAboutWine please visit www.LearnAboutWine.com.