Karen Sutherland

The catalyst for Karen’s wine journey was a University exchange in Alsace, France for her 3rd year of engineering. Then, while working as a full-time water and wastewater treatment engineer, Karen also completed her DipWSET (level IV), Italian Wine Scholar and French Wine Scholar (both with honours). With a goal of combining her two passions (wastewater and wine), in 2020, she completed a Masters of Science in Vineyard & Winery Management in Bordeaux, then took a Neuroscience of Wine Tasting during COVID.
Vineyard and cellar internships on the Mosel, in Cognac, and the Okanagan, plus B.C. tasting room and wine store experience cemented the theory. Work and studies in Alsace, Basel, Burgundy, and Baden wine regions and tastings around the world broadened the knowledge. Now, with over 25 years of teaching experience and a scientific penchant, Karen loves to debunk the mysteries of how to taste wine by explaining how your senses work and why people’s perceptions are unique.