Rick is a New York Times bestselling author, an award-wining journalist and the wine commentator for Capital Public Radio, Sacramento’s NPR member station. He firmly believes that anyone who makes wine too complicated or snooty should be sentenced to drinking low-carb beer.
 
Rick was a longtime columnist for “The Sacramento Bee,” covering politics, Hollywood and food & wine, and his writing has appeared in newspapers across the country and in publications ranging from Time Magazine to Sommelier Journal to Daily Variety. He also worked in the wine industry as a consultant on service and communication, including training wineries and restaurants on how to present food and wine without the gobbledy-speak, 
and worked as a Napa Valley-based Communications Strategist for Gallo.
 
He is the author of two books, “A Moveable Thirst: Tales and Tastes from a Season in Napa Wine Country,” which he says is the funniest wine book ever written – competition: zero, and “The Barefoot Spirit,” a business book set in the wine world that spent two months on the New York Times Bestseller list and was a national 2020 Audie Award nominee for best audio business book.
Rick also judges wine competitions around the country, is the former Co-Chief Judge of the California State Fair Commercial Wine Competition and is the current Chief Judge for the State Fair’s Home Wine Competition. He has talked about wine and food on Northern California TV and radio stations for years and teaches wine classes to professionals and regular folk.
 
He regularly conducts inventive, light-hearted, anti-winespeak programs for corporate events, regional restaurants and the public, and says self-important wine “educators” who suck the fun out of tastings should be mocked whenever possible.




Paul--Tired of working for somewhat crazy people in the wine industry in Napa Valley, Paul Wagner created Balzac Communications & Marketing on April 1, 1991, so he could work for himself—a truly crazy person. His clients have included everyone from Diageo Chateau & Estate Wines and the Union des Grands Crus de Bordeaux to tiny wineries you’ve never heard of. Which is his fault.
 
He’s been teaching at Napa Valley College’s Viticulture and Enology department for the past thirty-plus years, and also lectures at major wine conferences, is a guest lecturer at many universities around the world, and has spoken at more than eighty conferences. Amazingly, he is still getting invited to lecture at universities throughout the world on wine business, communications, public affairs, wine and wine marketing.
 
His book, co-authored with Liz Thach and Janeen Olsen, Wine Marketing & Sales, Strategies for a Saturated Market, won the Gourmand International Award in 2008 for the best wine book of the year for professionals. It's now (2026) in its fourth edition.  His book, Wine Sales and Distribution, with John Crotts and Byron Marlowe, won the Gourmand Award for 2019, and a third book, Artisan Public Relations, was published in 2020. He also recorded a series on wine for the Great Courses program called “The Instant Sommelier,” and a series on wine for Audible: “The Story of Wine in Ten Glasses.” His recent series of mystery novels set in the Sierra Nevada have won critical acclaim, and he recently released a new mystery novel, A Murderous Vintage, set in the Napa Valley. All of his books can be found here: https://www.albicaulis.com/books-etc
 
He has been a judge at more than 100 international wine competitions. He was inducted into the Spadarini della Castellania di Soave in 2005, and in 2009 he was honored with a “Life Dedicated to Wine” award at the Feria Nacional del Vino (FENAVIN) in Spain.  In 2018 he was given the American Wine Society’s annual Award of Merit, joining such luminaries as Robert Mondavi and Gina Gallo, and was named the winner of the McPherson Distinguished Teacher Award at Napa Valley College.

He now serves as Senior Advisor, Wine Tourism for Expedia Cruises. So it’s time for him to retire.