The friendly staff here at Bottles & Corks has an impressive 47 YEARS of combined experience!
Mary Beth Maxa - Owner
Jennifer Snell - General Manager
Kathleen Bange - Sales Associate
Nathan Kane - Assistant Front End Manager
Nathan joined the Bottles & Corks family in the Fall of 2007. He began with great customer service skills, but minimal wine knowledge. He has since become very proficient in many of the world's grape varietals, wine regions and styles. His passion trends toward international wines, especially dry reds and red blends. Nathan is also the primary contact for the Finger Lakes wineries for local events, is in charge of scheduling the weekend in-store tastings, and helps manage our social media campaign.
Nicole Bordelon - Sales Associate
Lee Blaser - Wine Educator/Business & Marketing Manager
Shortly after graduating from UNLV, Lee took a trip to Europe in the summer of 1995 that changed her life and career path. After living in Paris, France for almost a year, and spending many months visiting wine producing regions, Lee decided to turn her passion for wine into her career.
This experience, following on that of living within a "wine" culture in Paris and traveling throughout the wine producing regions of France, Italy and Greece, led her to return to her hometown in the Finger Lakes Wine Region of Upstate New York in the summer of 2000 and enter the wine trade. She began her career with a large distributor, gaining a wide range of experience with wines from all around the world.
From this start, Lee was hired by Bottles & Corks in 2003 as Wine Director. Years later, she accepted a contract from the owners of a new upscale wine bar/tapas restaurant to help them get off the ground. After subsequently serving 2 years as Retail Wine & Spirits Manager for a chain of gourmet grocery stores in Baltimore, she has happily returned to Corning and to Bottles & Corks where she serves as Marketing Manger, Wine Club Director and she manages their new Wine Education Program.
Continuing to pursue a goal that is several years in the making, Lee has earned the WSET Advanced Certificate, and is planning to complete the Level 4 Diploma program of the prestigious WSET in London and ultimately achieve the Master of Wine Certification, as well as adding Certified Wine Educator to her resume, accredited by the Society of Wine Educators. Lee has also served as a wine judge, at the New York State Fair Wine Competition in Syracuse, N.Y.
