Ms. LaRaia’s wine career began in London, England where she worked for one of the oldest and largest wine stores in the city, and received a Certificate from the Wine & Spirits Education Trust of the U.K. Her subsequent U.S. wine trade experience included work as Assistant Manager of three Atlanta wine stores, Wholesale Sales Representative for Georgia Crown Distributors selling wine, beer and liquor to the top 100 restaurants, and as Georgia State Sales Manager for Banfi Vintners, largest wine importers in USA.

In 1978 Anita established Anita LaRaia's Wine School in Atlanta and has taught basic and advanced courses as its Director ever since. Altogether Anita has done over 2000 wine classes in the last 28 years and has graduated thousands of students. Ms. LaRaia also taught very successful wine courses for over 10 years at Oglethorpe University, and before that at Emory University. Anita has been an Instructor member of the Society of Wine Educators since 1978 and was a guest speaker at their national conference 2001. Upcoming projects include herown Radio Show and CDRom.

As the Wine Editor for Atlanta Homes & Lifestyles magazine, Anita began a series of contemporary wine feature articles in every issue for 5 yrs. from 1993 to 1997. Anita also had a monthly wine column in Atlanta magazine for three years from 1990-1993. Anita then wrote a monthly wine column for The Wine Report called “Wine School” in 1999 and 2000. For 3 years Anita wrote wine articles for Beverage Media Holiday Guide, 2 million copies of which are distributed yearly. In 2000 Anita published two articles for their nationwide Beverage Journals and two wine pieces with photos for the acclaimed Wine Enthusiast magazine. Anita is also the author of the consumer information pamphlet “Contains Sulfites” which was featured in U.S.A. Today, Los Angeles Times, New York Daily News and San Francisco Chronicle. She currently has 5 wine articles online at www.Chefs.com and is under contract to write a wine Textbook for Pearson Prentice-Hall. Anita is also a retail store consultant.

Known as a very funny, dynamic speaker, Anita is in great demand as speaker and has done many Corporate Wine Events, including for Equitable R.E., Bell South Legal, McKinsey & Co., American Bar Association, Deloitte & Touche, High Museum of Art, Safeco Select Insurance, Glaxo Smith Kline, Schering-Plough, Bristol-Myers, Institute of Real Estate Management, American Bar Association, American College of Cardiology and many others. Anita has also done deluxe Vineyard Tours of France and Italy.

The American Culinary Federation approved Anita’s Wine Diploma Course for 30 CE Hours. Anita has both B.A. and Master’s Degrees in Social Psychology from Cornell University, Ithaca, NY. She is 1st generation Italian-American, and a member of Les Dames d’Escoffier. Anita’s current Food & Wine Classes are held at The Tasting Room in Sandy Springs.