About Ian Blackburn

I discovered the wine industry while working with Chef’s Thomas Keller and Joachim Splichal in the top dining rooms of Los Angeles. My passion redirected my career from restaurants/hotels to vineyards and wine-education. Now with over 25-years of experience hosting events; leading trips around the wine world; I published a wine book; produced my own wine called Beekeeper Cellars and sat for the difficult Master of Wine Exam! Today, I am considered one of the region's best wine educators and work for my 20,000 followers (follow me), visiting vineyards and wine regions and produce over 100 wine classes and events a year for my businesses and my team.

Timeline
1995 Learnaboutwine.com was created
2003-2005 TASTE on Two Rodeo – weekly tastings on Rodeo Drive
2005 LASupportsLA donated $250K to Hurricane Katrina Charities
2007 My wine class was featured on ABC’s The Bachelor
2010 Sold 5000 Groupons in one day to survive the great recession
2016 Appeared in the Movie “Sour Grapes” – Yes, Rudi was originally a student
2019 Surpassed 1 million dollars in Charity donations through our various events
2020 Pivoted to our own retail store called Merchantofwine.com & we still deliver!
2022 Appeared in the Movie “A Perfect Vintage”

Websites:
ZoomIntoWine.com - virtual tastings and education
MerchantofWine.com - procured wines and my wine of the month club
LearnAboutWine.com - wine education and events

Social Media (110,000 Followers):
Personal Instagram - @ianblackburnpresents
LearnAboutWine Instagram - @learnaboutwine

Facebook - @Learnaboutwine

Youtube - @LearnAboutWine