Tim Gaiser is a world-renowned wine expert, writer, and lecturer. He is one of only 202 individuals worldwide to ever attain the prestigious Master Sommelier wine title, and is the former director of education and education chair for the Court of Master Sommeliers, Americas. Gaiser is also an adjunct professor for the Rudd Center for Professional Wine Studies at the Culinary Institute of America at Greystone in Napa Valley.
With experience in all areas of the wine trade — online, wholesale, retail, winery, and restaurant — he has developed wine education programs for restaurants, winery schools, and wine distributors. His client list includes Fosters Global Wines, Diageo, American Express, Evian, Pepsico International, Fiduciary Trust, Franklin-Templeton, Morgan Stanley, and Wells Fargo.
BACKSTORY
Tim Gaiser wasn’t always a wine maven. He explains: “When I first became enamored of wine and started going to professional tastings people next to me would go on and on extolling the fruit qualities of a wine as well as something called 'terroir' which sounded impossibly mysterious. To me the wines smelled like either white wine or red wine, and not much else. But I stuck with it and little by little flavors started to creep into the nasal receptors in my brainpan. The lights started to come on. In fact, I was simply using my olfactory neural pathways over and over until they started to wake up and function. Repetition, as with so many other things, was the key. To this day I'm still trying to improve at tasting and that will always be the case. One can never taste enough wine.”
OF NOTE
Mr. Gaiser is currently working on a large scale project involving the use of behavioral and neuro sciences to teach and improve olfactory and palate memory as they relate not only to wine, but to other industries including spirits, coffee, tea, olive oil, and perfumes. His cutting edge research in this area is increasing the awareness of how our minds recognize and store smells and tastes. He is using this new information to change how people teach wine tasting and other subjects that involve the use of sensory evaluation.
PERSONAL
Before embarking on his hugely successful wine career, Tim received an M.A. in Classical Music. He played classical trumpet as a freelance professional musician and performed as an extra with the San Francisco Opera.
NO JOKE
Gaiser has served as the head judge for the Best Young Sommelier Competition and the TopSomm Competition, the two major sommelier competitions in the United States. Considered one of the leading wine tasters and educators, Gaiser was featured in the Think like a Genius Wine Master training product, created by the Everyday Genius Institute.
VITAL STATS
FULL NAME: Tim Gaiser
NATIONALITY: American
OCCUPATION: Wine Expert and Master Sommelier
RESIDENCE: San Francisco, California
