After testing hundreds of wines for their quality and value, a select panel of judges including Sunset food and wine editors carefully choose the wines to be featured each month. Our wine and recipe selection panel is led by noted wine and culinary experts: Sara Schneider, Sunset's senior food and wine editor, Karen MacNeil, author of The Wine Bible and director of the professional wine studies program at the Culinary Institute of America in Napa Valley, and Elaine Marshall, Certified Wine Professional of the Culinary Institute of America.

Sara Schneider is Senior Food and Wine Editor at Sunset Magazine. A graduate of the California Culinary Academy, before joining Sunset she was the editor of Bay Food for three years, where she was nominated for a James Beard award for magazine feature writing. Along with overseeing Sunset's food and wine coverage, developing recipes herself, and writing food and restaurant stories, Schneider writes a monthly wine column on news, trends, and issues. She also organizes regular wine tastings, oversees almost-daily pairings in the test kitchen, and as often as possible pulls a bottle or two from under her desk to help fellow Sunset editors unwind.

As Director of Professional Wine Studies at the Culinary Institute of America at Greystone in the Napa Valley, Karen MacNeil has recently overseen the development of the country's first Certified Wine Professional program. She consults nationwide on the subject of wine as well as food pairing and has appeared often on television, including the Today Show. Her most recent series-Wine, Food, and Friends with Karen MacNeil-began airing on PBS in October. Author of The Wine Bible, MacNeil has also written more than 1,000 articles on wine for The New York Times, Travel & Leisure, Bon Appétit, Fine Cooking, The Wine Spectator, Elle, Cooking Light, and other major newspapers and magazines. She has written for Sunset for seven years; you can find her wine-picks column in our food section every month.

Elaine Marshall, Director of Wine Development at Signature Wines, founded the First Street Wine Company in Livermore, California. A former restaurant sommelier, Marshall has over 10 years of experience in the wine industry and is a Certified Wine Professional. A specialist in New World wines, Marshall has studied extensively the wines of California, Australia, and the Pacific Northwest. She tastes hundreds of wines annually sourcing for Signature's wine programs. She has served as a wine judge for many California wine competitions. A graduate of the University of California at Davis, she has produced and bottled her own private-label wine for four vintages. Her wine reviews have been published in Diablo Magazine and in various on-line newsletters.