Julia Burke has lived in Western New York on and off for nearly twenty years. She discovered her passion for craft beer while in college in Portland, Oregon, but honed her pint skills as a bartender at the Pizza Plant microbrew pub from 2008 to 2011, where she was exposed to beer geek culture and an incredible variety of specialty beers. Meanwhile, she discovered and fell deeply in love with the Niagara USA wine region in 2009 when she began working at an Escarpment winery. Her passion for wine led her to two wine harvest internships in South Africa as well as an interest in home winemaking.
She is now the assistant editor of Buffalo Spree magazine, in addition to writing on beer, wine, food, cocktails, and other topics for a Spree and variety of publications. She is also a part-time wine associate with the Premier Group.
Julia enjoys cooking, hiking, traveling and writing, ideally with a beer or glass of wine in hand. She hopes to one day drink her way through Belgium and Germany, and return to China to study the art of street food.
A fan of mixing genres, Julia enjoys an occasional pint in the vineyard.