About Jeb Dunnuck

About JebDunnuck.com

The JebDunnuck.com website is a subscription-based publication dedicated to providing cutting-edge, independent commentary and reviews on the top wines and wine regions of the world. While the core editorial focus is to cover Southern France, Bordeaux, Champagne, Italy, California, Oregon, and Washington, we also plan to give readers periodic articles on other world-class and emerging global wine regions, as well as in-depth coverage on the wine portfolios of top US importers.

JebDunnuck.com is 100% independent and subscriber-funded. We accept no advertising, and will always pay our own way. This is the only way to guarantee 100% freedom of “wine critic” speech. As the Editor In Chief of this website, I will ensure this is a guiding principle behind every word published.

As always, thank you for reading. ~Jeb

About Jeb Dunnuck

An aerospace engineer by training, Jeb Dunnuck grew up on a farm in rural Indiana where 2% milk was the beverage of choice and wine was hard to come by. It wasn’t until 1996, when living abroad and traveling through Europe, that he became interested in fine wine.

Moving to upstate New York in 1999 to work for Lockheed Martin, and later to Colorado in 2001 to work for Ball Aerospace, he traveled extensively throughout the wine regions of Europe and the United States, where he quickly developed a passion for the wines of the Rhône Valley and the Rhône Ranger Movement in California and Washington. To gain a better understanding of the business side of the wine industry, he took a temporary wine retail position in 2006.

Jeb launched the “The Rhône Report” publication and website in 2008 and began releasing a quarterly newsletter reviewing Rhône variety wines from around the world. Completely independent and including coverage on wines from France, Spain, Australia, and both California and Washington in the United States, the publication continued to gain in popularity and subscribers, and by 2013, was read in over 24 countries and seen as one of the leading authorities on Rhône variety wines.

In 2013, after being approached by Robert Parker to join The Wine Advocate team, Jeb gave up his engineering career and wrote full-time for the Wine Advocate. Described as a younger version of himself by Robert M. Parker Jr., Dunnuck was the leading reviewer for California, Washington, and Southern France from 2013 to 2017, publishing more reviews than any other professional reviewer.

In 2017, Jeb decided to leave the Wine Advocate and go back to his roots as an independent wine critic, launching his own publication JebDunnuck.com. Through the platform, Dunnuck offers comprehensive, consumer-focused coverage of the most interesting wines from California, Washington, Southern France, and Bordeaux, while seeking out discoveries from around the world.

Dunnuck’s goal with JebDunnuck.com is to provide insight and up-to-date information that can’t be found anywhere else. “Too often today, the ‘story’ behind a wine is put before the quality of a wine,” Dunnuck said. “I want to help consumers cut through the marketing and the spin and zero in on what’s in the glass. I plan to deliver the information consumers really need to know when trying to decide what to buy and what to drink.”

He resides in Colorado, with his wife Traci and dog Ella, where he pretends to rock climb and race a bicycle.

About Audrey Frick

When Audrey Frick was 12 years old, her band director at Robert F. Wagner Middle School in New York City, Mr. Pitt, held up a French horn.

“This,” Mr. Pitt announced, “is the most difficult of all instruments. But it can also be the most rewarding.”

That the French horn quickly became an obsession for Audrey captures her eagerness to take on a challenge and to learn complex subject matter—qualities that the Manhattan native brings to covering Sonoma, Oregon, Champagne, Piedmont, and Brunello for JebDunnuck.com.

Audrey earned a Bachelor of Music in French horn performance at the University of Colorado. While there working on her master’s, the cash-strapped grad student found a job as a server at the Boulder Dushanbe Teahouse. There were only a few wines offered there, but she was drawn to them, and wine began to compete with music for her attention.

A pivotal experience came while dining at the Northern Italian-focused Frasca Food and Wine, where a traditional tajut—a small pour—of Friulano Bianco is offered as a greeting. With this small gesture, Audrey saw how wine and hospitality could blend to create culture, and there was no turning back.

After gaining the notice of Master Sommelier Bobby Stuckey, within a couple of years Audrey was hired at his restaurant Frasca. She worked her way from the back office and polishing room to the wine team while studying to earn the Advanced Sommelier credential through the Court of Master Sommeliers.

She then moved to Frasca’s sister restaurant Tavernetta, in Denver, as a member of its opening wine team, before becoming lead sommelier. There, she worked to foster a culture of wine education for the staff, with an all-Italian wine list.  In addition to the restaurant world, she developed high-end retail experience while working at the Boulder Wine Merchant.

Audrey’s passion for wine education and culture took her to Europe to help with harvests at Iuli in Monferratto in Piedmont, and at Marquis d’Angerville in Burgundy.

Her goal as a contributing editor at JebDunnuck.com is to navigate the confusing nature of Italian wine law, history and regionality to help inform the reader on what to drink, when to drink it, and what to have on the table alongside it.

As for the French horn, Audrey still has one. Though she’s not playing much these days, there is talk with her study partners of one day forming a band: The Champagne Supernovas.