Im Alicia, I was born in Argentina and I moved to Canada in 2012. I have two beautiful children, I have a degree in Marketing and I’m obtaining my certifications in education for children with special needs but wine, specially my beloved Malbec, is something that I love passionate.
I’m learning a lot, meeting many beautiful people in the industry and I hope I can do my best.

After some time away, I am making every effort to break back into the wine industry and start my career!

Good Day
My name is Melanie Ferreira, I have spent my career in Hospitality industry.
The early years I spent as a pastry chef/ manager. In 2008 I opened my own Bistro in Toronto (Melanie's Bistro).
Over the next decade I paired up with many many Local Ontario Wineries and featured them in the Bistro.
My Love and Passion for wine has grown over the years, my education in wine making is informal and learnt mostly thru the reading and wine reps.
Currently I am the café Manager at the Young Centre For performing Arts in the Distillery District.
Along with the Senior Management we have made a change to feature only local Ontario wines.
I enjoy sharing my knowledge of wine with my customer and family and friends.
Given an opportunity to further my Education I would love to share this love , passion and education specially with Ethnic Restaurants where I see a huge potential to pair those flavor's and wines.
Thank you for your time.

I currently I am the Assistant Manager and Local Buyer at Kitsilano Wine Cellar. I started my wine journey long time ago with the WSET 1 & 2 but I didn't start working in the Industry until 3 years ago. I currently have the level 3 for WSET and followed with the Italian Wine Scholar Unit 2. I would like to continue my education with the Unit 1 of the Italian Wine Scholar and the French Wine Scholar.

I am a passionate and meticulous Cellar Master and Foreman that is transitioning to a Winemaker role. I have strong leadership traits that have led me to be quickly moved into a management position at every company I have been employed. My continued pursuit of knowledge has led me to a B.Sc. in Biological Sciences with a minor in Analytical Chemistry, a winemaking certificate from UC Davis, my WSET Level 2 (with distinction) and WSET Level 3, as well as the completion of the Wines of British Columbia Level 1 and 2 Ambassador programs.

Follow me on my journey in to the world of wine. WSET 1 certification will be my first task.

I feel a deep connection to food and the ways we enjoy it, which has always been an important part of my culture and growing up in Toronto. I have been working in the service industry for 10 years and when I first discovered wine, I knew immediately it was something I would become passionate about. I am eager to start my WSET level 3 as a step towards furthering my knowledge and confidence in wine.

Website: https://about.me/helen_xu

EXPERIENCE HIGHLIGHTS
Helen is a highly motivated, detail-oriented, and well-rounded business professional who speaks English, Mandarin, and Cantonese.

Helen is also a Wine professional. Helen was awarded WSET® Level 1 in Wines in 2015, WSET® Level 2 in May 2016, and passed her WSET® Level 3 with distinction in December 2017. She is also a certified Canadian Wine Scholar and French Wine Professional by Fine Vintage Ltd. Recently Helen took advantage of the free time due to the pandemic and completed two online courses: Fine Vintage Food and Wine Professional and Fine Vintage Level 1 in Spirits. Currently Helen is pursuing the French Wine Scholar certification offered by the Wine Scholar Guild.

Helen enjoys analysing business needs and providing effective, efficient, and creative market-oriented solutions. For example, when Helen was the only analyst at Canada's (then) largest online food ordering company, she initiated and created a customer service chat monitoring tool. Within the first month of deploying this tool, the Customer Service team increased their chat response rate and average customer satisfaction by over 90 percent.

Helen aims to continue exercising her problem-solving and critical thinking skills in any challenges that may arise in her Wine career.

I run production accounting, forecasting and planning and full-cycle accounting for a distillery. I also like to write about wine and spirits!

Marketing communications manager and WSET Level 1 student.