Wine Director for Crown Wine & Spririts, Professor and Director of Wine Programs at Florida International University Chip Cassidy with wife Chris.

Chip and Chris Cassidy

Wine is his Life
Chip Cassidy’s life is an oenophile’s dream-come-true

You are a well-known voice in the wine community. What do you see as your unique mission or ultimate goal?
I am a very lucky person. Tasting, drinking and reading about wine have always been among my favorite hobbies and that is what my occupation is all about. I have been a major wine buyer for the past thirty-two years, so I get to taste tons of wines.

Also, I have been a professional wine judge for the past twenty-five years and get to go to these neat competitions, mostly in California, and in New York and New Zealand, and taste 600-800 wines each time. I have been a teacher at Florida International University for the last twenty years. I have gotten to explore different wine areas in the United States, South America, South Africa, Europe, Australia and New Zealand, which I do not have to pay for. I guess that my ultimate goal would be to keep my job!

Talk about your involvement with the Cellar Club.
I was friends with Yvonne Roberts even before she created the Cellar Club. Every time that I am invited to one of her dinners, I feel like a character in The Great Gatsby. They are special beyond comparison.

My own son Patrick started his career in the wine industry at the Cellar Club, and every now and then I speak at Cellar Club events. I love the Biltmore. The South Florida wine community is very fortunate to have such a club.

Talk about your position at FIU.
I am the Director of Wine Programs at FIU. That means that I get to create new classes for the students and the public. Last year, we offered seven different wine classes. No other university in the country can match our program.

What is the ultimate wine and food pairing?
The ultimate wine and food pairing is one in which the wine makes the food better and the food makes the wine better.

If you could open one great bottle of wine to celebrate your next milestone, what would it be? Who would you share it with?
I like too many styles to honestly answer that question. I would share a great bottle of wine with my wife Chris, first, and my wine-tasting buddies, second.

Do you collect wines? Do you have a favorite?
I collected wines for about twenty years and then it dawned on me that I would rather drink younger wines than older ones. I get to taste more than 5,000 wines per year.

From where have you acquired most of your wine knowledge?
I am self-taught. I have over 2,000 wine books in English.

Your experience and comprehension of fine wine is amazing, and enviable! What prompted this direction in your life?
When I was eighteen years old, a friend’s father opened a 1959 Chateau Lafite Rothschild for me. From that day forward, I’ve been hooked.

What is your one guilty pleasure?
Doing nothing! Next to that, my guilty pleasure is sitting on my dock in the late afternoon with my wife, Chris and my Black Labrador, Bailey, a great bottle of wine, a cigar, a wine book and bread to feed the fish.