Lisa Granik MW entered the wine trade following an earlier career as a lawyer and law professor. In 2010 she established Tastingworks, which offers tailored go-to-market strategies for wine regions and family-run wineries seeking to develop brands, to enter and/or improve their penetration in the American market. Her career in wine has included work in wine production, retail, import and distribution channels, working with both small and large wholesalers and importers around the United States. She was a Professor of Wine, Beer and Spirits at the New York Institute of Technology from 2013-2015. Her multiple speaking engagements include the Smithsonian Institution, the Cité du Vin et Civilization in Bordeaux, and numerous conferences. Lisa frequently judges in wine competitions worldwide. Her writings on wine have appeared in publications such as Somm Journal, The World of Fine Wine, and The New York Times.
Lisa became a Master of Wine in 2006. She has a BS and MS in Foreign Service from Georgetown University, a JD from Georgetown, her LL.M and doctorate from Yale Law
School. Widely published both in wine and in the law, she is the recipient of numerous awards and fellowships, among them two distinct Fulbright Scholarships (in 1990-91 and in 2017-18), the Villa Maria Award, a Waitrose Fellowship, and the Thomas Jefferson Award from the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts. She is currently serves on the Board of the Women in Wine Leadership Symposium. She serves as a Board Member of the Institute of Masters of Wine (North America) from 2007-2018, and served as a member of the governing Council of the Institute of Masters of Wine, for which she co-chairs the Committee on Diversity, Inclusion and Transformation. She recently was declared a “Leading Woman in Wine” in Somm Journal. Her book, The Wines of Georgia, was published in 2020 and is regarded as the definitive book on the subject. Her annual “Granik’s Guide to Georgian Wine” was released in 2021; the 2023 edition will be released in the autumn of 2022.