The Wine Tutor, Len Gulino, has been an avid wine taster, traveler, and collector since 1982.   After several years of intensive self-education and formal training, he began to teach other people about wine, and to contribute wine articles to various publications and websites. For several years in the mid-eighties he regularly attended wine classes in New Haven, CT, with Mannie Berk, current owner of The Rare Wine Company of Sonoma, CA. www.rarewineco.com/ .  The small classes taught by this wine expert gave Len an extensive and comprehensive understanding of the great wine regions of the world.

Also during the mid-to-late eighties Len was an active member of The Society of Wine Educators www.societyofwineeducators.org and attended a wide variety of seminars and formal classes offered by them. In the late-nineties Len took another series of formal wine classes at the Culinary Institute of America at Greystone in Napa Valley, CA. www.ciaprochef.com/winestudies/index.html.  He received certification there that included several classes taught by Karen McNeil, nationally-known author of "The Wine Bible"  http://www.winefoodandfriends.com/ . Since 1990 Len has traveled world-wide with Vin Marottoli of The Tasters Guild as he leads small groups of consumers and wine professionals on tours of major wine regions www.vintagetours.com/.  These travels have allowed Len to see and learn about the vineyards and winemaking practices directly from some of the world's most highly regarded winemakers.  He also finds these trips to be the most challenging to his "gently" expanding waist-line!

When his corporate career as an Information Technology Manager ended via layoff in 2002, he decided to pursue wine full-time and took a retail position at one of the top five wine stores in Connecticut, Harry's Wine & Liquor Market in Fairfield, CT.  www.harryswine.com  In addition to helping customers on the sales floor, he also designed and implemented the bi-monthly newsletter, wrote all the newspaper advertising, became manager of the initial website, and developed the wine school as primary instructor. Len's experience has qualified him as a member of The Wine Century Club www.winecentury.com which means that he has tasted wines made from over 100 different grapes... 122 as of this writing, and the only member from Connecticut so far. As a wine professional Len gets to taste LOTS of wines, but the truth is that a wine pro has to taste many BAD wines just to get to those few really good ones. He is a consumer consultant with My Wines Direct where he is on the tasting panel to determine which wines they will sell. Click this image of bottles below to see how the best wines are chosen.