My name is Christel J. Burks My professional title is District Manager at Winebow.

Born and raised in Cognac, France, I grew up in a family where food and wine was a very big part of the every day life. Passionate about traveling, I studied Foreign Languages and International Business and got a Master's degree in German Literature. I then decided to specialize in Brandy and Spirits since my family was in the business. After I got my Master's degree in Spirits, I started working for a small Boutique company producing Cognac, Leopold Gourmel in October 1993. Then I joined the marketing department of their importer, Wein Wolf Import in Bonn, Germany in 1995. December 1998 I decided to go into sales and worked for Moet Hennessy in Germany. Luckily Robert Mondavi was opening a European sales office in Frankfurt and hired me as their Sales Manager for Benelux (Belgium, Luxembourg and the Netherlands) and France in January 2000. In September 2001, I decided to broaden my wine knowledge and attended the first wine MBA class with the Bordeaux Business School. I graduated at the end of 2002 and came to Michigan. After a great experience with a fine wine distributor, AHD Vintners, as a portfolio Manager, I took over the Midwest territory for a European Importer in Bordeaux, Europvin. During that year, I “rounded up” my education with 2 certifications: CSW and Spanish Wine Educator with the Society of Wine Education. Winebow came along at the beginning of 2010 offering me a position as a District Manager for Michigan and Indiana and I couldn’t pass on representing a company with such a diverse and high quality portfolio.