Great Northwest Invitational Wine Competition

• Amberleigh Brownson, a certified sommelier, is the wine buyer and director of operations for Leader Block Wine Co. & Eatery in Ferndale, Wash.
• Kathy Byrd oversees distributor management and sales for Real Wine Alliance in Woodinville, Wash.
• Ilene Dudunake owns A New Vintage Wine Shop near Boise, Idaho. (Read her profile in the Idaho Statesman.)
• Kat Dykes is the founder/agent of Washington Women on Wine, a consumer-driven wine-buying group based in the Tri-Cities. (She is an alumnae of Wine Press Northwest magazine’s Match Maker series during her days as wine concierge/buyer at The Lodge at Columbia Point.)
• Clinton Hoiland is owner/operator of Twisted Vine Wine Tours, Lewiston, Idaho, and works Northern Idaho on- and off-premise sales for Idaho Wine Merchant.
• Ellen Landis is a certified sommelier, wine journalist and renowned international wine judge with offices in St. Petersburg, Fla., and Windsor, Calif.
• Sophia McDonald Bennett is a journalist and educator in Eugene, Ore., who contributes to SevenFifty Daily, Wine Enthusiast, Wine Press Northwest and the Slow Wine Guide.
• Tim Norris is proprietor of Eyes on the Vine wine services in Kent, Wash. (He is an alumni of Wine Press Northwest magazine’s Match Maker series during his days as GM of Reds Wine Bar.)
• Katelyn Peil is beverage director of the Seattle-based Heavy Restaurant Group.
• Mark Takagi is the wine buyer and specialty sales director for Seattle-based Metropolitan Market.
• Sara Wicks is the owner and wine buyer of Vin Wine Bar and Cellar in Moscow, Idaho.
• Paul Zitarelli is the founder/owner of Full Pull Wines in Seattle and author of 36 Bottles of Wine.

Chief judges for the 2021 Invite will be Kristine Bono, general manager of Tertulia Cellars in Walla Walla, Wash., and Dana Van Nest, a writer and communications strategist as well as a student of the Northwest Wine Academy at South Seattle College.