At Cork and Karma, service, class and detail are what we know best. Let our team of professional wine experts lend a hand on your next wine journey to make it what it truly should be - outstanding.

Sandi Marques – Founder, Cork and Karma Inc. & Sommelier, International Sommelier Guild

Kristina Boudaeva – Event Planner

Katrina Hann – Wine Researcher, Assistant Sommelier, Bilingual (French and English)

Sandi Marques – Founder, Cork and Karma Inc. & Sommelier, International Sommelier Guild

Photograph by Gordon Beck, Gazette (Montreal)

You can know hear Sandi, live Fridays at 7:30 pm on the Table Talk Show with Orla Johannes talking about all things alcoholic. Click here and bookmark this page to listen, www.940news.com. Please read what the Montreal Gazette and the Vancouver Sun had to say about Sandi Marques.

The juice of the grapes squelches between her four-year-old toes and she giggles at the sounds rising from the large tin barrel in which she tramps. The same squish-squishing burbles from the buckets in which her sisters, brother and father all stand, jeans rolled to their knees, trampling grapes. It’s a magical time, the family together in their annual and traditional enterprise; the purple feet and ankles that stay for weeks and the intoxicating and heady scent of fermenting fruit that hangs forever in the crisp fall air. For Sandi, it seems, wine has been a part of her life and culture forever.

Sandi credits her Portuguese heritage for her natural tendency for abundant wine drinking. But aside from savouring mass quantities of wine to educate her palate (it’s a tough job but somebody has to do it), Sandi spends her days educating thousands on wine. She is a member of the International Sommelier Guild, speaker, wine writer and educator. Her steadfast goal is to infuse people with her same passion for wine, food and life.

Her experience in the hospitality and restaurant industry stretches over fourteen years, including such places as The Four Seasons, Holiday Inn, and Langdon Hall – Ontario’s premier, five-star Relais et Château. Sandi has also worked in several top French restaurants and been trained by their Chefs and Managers.

As a public speaker, Sandi has presented to audiences well into the hundreds on such topics as ‘Wine Savvy for Business People,’ ‘Class in a Glass,’ ‘Food and Wine Pairing Principles,’ as well as her ever popular ‘Entertaining with Wine’ workshop. Sandi has also been featured on the front page of the business section of the Montreal Gazette as well as The Vancouver Sun and The Winnipeg Free Press, and is a regular columnist for ‘Your Local Journal,’ weekly newspaper in Quebec. Between her newsletter, seminars and regular newspaper column, Sandi’s advice on wine and its karma influences thousands of readers and their wine buying habits.

At John Abbott College in Quebec and Algonquin College in Ottawa, Sandi teaches wine courses to both novices and aspiring sommeliers. She also spends time as a wine judge, evaluator and reviewer for many associations and wine competitions.

But before her wine buying habit skyrocketed, Sandi spent many years educating herself to substantiate her wine drinking profession: an honours business degree in Hospitality and Tourism Management from Ryerson University (Toronto), a Culinary Diploma from George Brown College (Toronto), and her Sommelier Accreditation from the International Sommelier Guild. Because of her extensive training, Sandi has the unique ability to understand both wine and cooking, and to apply this knowledge in a way few wine experts can.

What’s next for Sandi? She is currently working on her first wine book, which will be published in 2006.

Kristina Boudaeva - Event Planner

Kristina is no ordinary event planner. This woman was born to plan - any event, any size, any occasion. Since early childhood, she showed her natural talent by staging and orchestrating street shows, birthday parties and school shows for her family, friends and fellow students. Her creativity, determination and entrepreneurial spirit have always led her to success and recognition.

Kristina was born and raised in the small town of Komsomolsk sur Amur, Russia. She traveled extensively with her family all over the world, which allowed her to diversify her cultural taste and knowledge. For the past 9
years, Kristina has made her home in Montreal, Canada, where she decided to apply her natural entrepreneurial spirit and follow her passion.
In 2005, she founded her own event consulting company, Classic
Events.

Classic Events is a proud partner with Cork and Karma and plans all our wine tasting events.

Katrina Hann - Wine Researcher and Assistant Sommelier

Katrina is a highly regarded professional sommelier with a long career history of service excellence. She began her career at the AIR CANADA CLUB in the Bell Center in Montreal as a server to private diners and members only.

Shortly after, she decided to venture out on her own, opening a french bistro-style restaurant with a highly successful chef. Here, Katrina really honed her passion by developing an exceptional menu and wine list.

In 1999, she received her A.S.P.C degree (Association of Sommelier Professionals of Canada) at the Hotel Institute of Laval. She decided to extend her knowledge of wines and traveled to Italy. While there, she was trained by renowned chef Francesco Laggi who has taught in several high end Italian restaurants in Toronto and Washington D.C.

However, in 2001 Katrina took on her most prestigious role as the first-ever female sommelier at the Beaver Club, Queen Elizabeth Hotel, Montreal.

As a result of this phenomenal achievement, Katrina was profiled in Vins et Vignobles magazine, March 2003.

In her new role with Cork and Karma, Katrina is responsible for researching wines for this newsletter, our collector tastings and wine events. She also presents wine education and wine tasting events in French.

"With wine, comes wisdom...more profound by the glass"

- Sandi Marques