Team

Our Team

Behind every great event are legions of talented people. From the people that pour the wines, take your wine orders, prepare the food, manage our website and social media, organize our wine tours and prepare all our marketing materials it takes a village to create an unforgettable BWC experience. We are fortunate to have people who take responsibility for the delivery of exceptional service for each event.

Sue Thompson, Membership. Contact: [email protected]

Lola Drusnitzer, Wine Pouring: With a team of Smart Serve trained volunteers, Lola manages the pouring of the wines at each event. This is a critical function for the smooth operation of any Wine club and with many years of managing wine merchants and retail stores, Lola is the perfect person to ensure that everyone gets the proper pours in a timely manner. Our trained wine pourers include: Anila, Marilyn, Diana, Beth, Martin, Elaine, Lou, Carl, Debbie and Phil.

Monique Wood, Wine Orders: At most events there is an opportunity for members and guests to purchase the wines that are presented. Monique works with our industry partners to take the orders, manage the delivery to Marilyn for where members and guests can pick up their orders. She then tracks our wine sales for the Club and our partners.

Danielle Marchese, Wine Wanderings: Danielle plans, organizes and coordinates our annual wine tour. This year she’ll take us out to Niagara. Next year it will be Lake Erie North shore and we may all have an opportunity to head out to Nova Scotia the year after that.

Danielle Marchese: Social Media: Danielle promotes our partners on Social media.

Dorothy Kereliuk, Lorraine Jurgen, Kathy Yotingco, Carl & Anne Spadoni – Food Preparation: Together, the food team prepares all the food pairings that go with the wines, and the Amuse Bouches that accompany the Sparkling wine. Teresa and team have their Food Handlers Certificates and manage the kitchen at the Venue according to Ontario Food Safety Guidelines and the Club Food Handling procedures.  We are excited to announce that the team will also be working with some Featured Chefs to showcase local talent and bring some exciting new pairings to our tastings.

Marilyn Benninger – What would we do without Marilyn?! she is our chief problem solver, not to mention managing all of our pickups from her front porch.

Teresa MacDonald, Sommelier: Our Club Sommelier, Teresa, works closely with our industry partners to select wines to be presented at the Club and the foods to be paired with the wines. Teresa also delivers brief talks at each meeting on different wine regions, the principles of food and wine pairing, how to taste like a pro and assorted other wine and food related topics. Contact: [email protected]

Our Founders

We would be very remiss if we didn’t mention our past president and Co-founder, David Kuhnke. It was in Teresa’s gardens that together, they hatched the plan to create a local wine club in Burlington. David served as the President for the inaugural years before relocating to Cobourg, Ontario.  He continues to come all the way back to Burlington, to join us whenever he can.