Jonathan Sloan
Founder

Jonathan has exclusively and only worked in the wine industry since college. “I was the manager of the largest wine shop in Connecticut, and I wasn’t even of legal age to drink”. After school he was fortunate enough to land a job at Morrell & Company, America’s premier wine retailer. “It was at Morrell’s were I got my graduate degree in wine”. He was routinely dispatched to Napa and Sonoma as well as many trips to wine regions in France, Italy, Spain and Portugal. His additional responsibilities included hosting and representing Morrell & Company at hundreds of wine tastings and wine-makers dinners.

Bill Bendelow
Class/Seminar Instructor

Bill’s career in wine began 10 years ago when he moved to New York. “I didn’t know anything about wine and was a cashier in a retail shop on 2nd avenue. Being in the business, it was easy to learn from the vendors and my co-workers; industry tastings were a great place to pick the brains of importers and winemakers. I learned a ton in a small amount of time.”

 
Since then his employment with a premier wholesaler in the NY/NJ region has put him in touch with a long list of famous producers and wine personalities – “It helps a great deal as a class instructor to have taken in so many points of view. My other biggest strength as an instructor is that it wasn’t really that long ago that I was yearning to learn about wine – I can understand and recall what it was like and it helps me as a constant reminder to use plain English and not ‘winespeak’”

Bill has also been lucky enough to travel to many of the world’s wine regions (France, Spain, Austria, Australia, Chile, etc.) to witness firsthand famous vineyards and wineries, and has tasted rare and pre-release wines with their respective regional cuisines. Along with his wife, he enjoys hosting dinner parties - large and small - for his friends and colleagues, with a preference for wines and foods that are “off the beaten path”. “She and I are big on searching for that ‘perfect pairing’ – when food and wine come together to make something better than either alone.”

Bill began teaching wine classes in 1996 when employed at another retailer near Columbia University. It was at their Bartending School that Bill got a taste for teaching. “It was nice to see someone react to having something explained to them that they at first thought was hopelessly complicated. Once a student learns some basic points it’s easy to them to start learning at their own pace.” Since then he has taught at Marymount Manhattan College and has been hired for countless private events of all sizes in venues of all types. “I’m very happy to have started GSW with Jonathan. We’ll be able to teach classes exactly as we want and be able to tailor custom events to how our clients want. Anything’s possible. Our connections to the wholesale side of the business give us an advantage that many other classes lack.”

To balance the civility of his life in the wine world, Bill plays rugby on weekends with various men’s clubs in New York.
 

Kimberly Grasso
Assistant Instructor

Kim’s passion for wines began while living in the heart of Italy’s wine country. “Working in Florence at the Osteria dell’ Olio for famed chef Alessandro Panzani really opened my eyes to the world of wine. Every vineyard rep in Piedment would stop by.