Chai Consulting: Expert Knowledge, Experience, Personalized Service
- Expert wine authentication
- Expert knowledge of wine asset management and global wine markets and trends
- Experience handling, appraising and valuation of older and fine & rare wines
- Individually structured services
Maureen Downey, DWS, CWE
Maureen is an expert in fine and rare wine appraisal, authentication, valuation and financial trends of global fine wine markets. With her ties to US auction houses, brokers and retailers worldwide, she is the perfect choice to manage your collection whether you are just beginning, growing or selling your collection, or creating investment opportunities for yourself or future generations.
Maureen completed the sommelier certification shortly after graduating from Boston University with a bachelor’s degree in Hospitality Administration. As a sommelier and restaurant manager/service director, she worked in some of the top restaurants in New York City. After several years of invaluable experience, she decided to work more directly with fine and rare wine joining Morrell & Company as an auction specialist. When Zachys founded Zachys Wine Auctions in 2002, she became the first full-time employee and Senior Specialist, determining many operating procedures and standards as well as specifications for cataloguing and pricing. Eventually, she returned home to San Francisco and joined the wine auction team at Bonhams & Butterfields.
For six years, Maureen worked on behalf of wine auction houses, as a fine & rare wine auction specialist, completing appraisals, inspecting tens of millions of dollars in inventories and consulting many of the world's top collectors. In 2006 she formed Chai Consulting and is now able to focus on the individual needs and interests of collectors and work on their behalf.
She holds the WSET Diploma in Wines & Spirits and is a Certified Wine Educator. She is also a Certified Spanish Wine Educator (2007) and an International Bordeaux Tutor (2007).
Accolades & Achievements
- 2007 Heavily Quoted in Jancis Robinson's Article, "Flushing out wine fraud and fakes," appearing in the Financial Times, on JancisRobinson.com, and picked up by many other print and web publications.
- 2006 Wine Appreciation Guild Award for results on the CWE Exam
- 2004 Featured in an episode of Simply Wine with Andrea Robinson (Immer), on the Fine Living Network, where Maureen discussed auction buying and demonstrated the authentication process by uncovering an "incorrect" bottle of mature Chateau Latour.
David Singer, Consultant
David is a highly acclaimed sommelier and wine educator with over 10 years of inventory management and education skills honed in some of the finest restaurants, hotels, and classrooms in the country. His experience includes assembling and managing some of the best wine collections in the world, including four Grand Award-winning cellars. Combined with a rare ability to communicate about the dynamic world of wine with passion and clarity to any audience, David is an invaluable oenophile resource.
After passing the Canadian Guild of Sommelier’s examination in the top 10 percent of his class, David launched his wine services career in New York, as a sommelier at award-winning restaurants Felidia, Le Cirque 2000, and Veritas, followed by a position as Sommelier d’Hotel of the Waldorf Astoria, where he oversaw the wine program for the hotel’s five restaurants. From Manhattan, he was lured to a position as Sommelier d’Hotel overseeing all five restaurants of the Five Diamond Windsor Court in New Orleans. In Boston, where he is currently based, David worked for the Grand Award winning Federalist Restaurant, and later for Mantra, a cutting-edge French-Indian restaurant. In 2005, he dedicated himself full time to teaching and wine consultancy with his company Libation Education.
David has earned the Court of Master Sommelier’s Advanced Sommelier degree (2002) and the accreditation of Certified Wine Educator by the Society of Wine Educators (2007). He is also a Certified Spanish Wine Educator (2007) and an International Bordeaux Tutor (2006).
Accolades & Achievements
- Named best Sommelier (2000) by the New York Press
- Director of Education at Gordon’s Fine Wine and Culinary Center serving Greater Boston, recognized as “Best of the New” by the Boston Globe (2007)
- Praised in Culinary Concierge, Cocktail.com, EdificeRex.com, Food Arts, Host Magazine, Manhattan Style, New York Press, The New Yorker, Our Town, Times-Picayune and Wineskinny.com – Sommelier Pick
