Full Bio Timeline
“One of the wine world’s great popularizers”
Mark Oldman is a wine expert, author, entrepreneur, speaker, and media personality, and, elementally, someone who delights in helping people simplify complex subjects. In the world of wine, he is known for his singular ability to unravel wine’s complexities with a potent blend of entertainment, style, and humor. Mark’s enduring, award-winning books are considered by many to be best of their kind and a world away from the sleep-including tomes of many wine experts.
His standing invitations to the country’s top food festivals and consistently sold-out events attest to his position as one of gastronomy’s most captivating speakers. Named “everybody’s favorite wine expert” by festival guru Lee Brian Schrager and a “hot ticket” by the New York Post, Mark brings the ruckus to audiences at major fairs, corporations, and institutions around the world.
Books
Timeline
Insider names the Mark Oldman Wine Experience one of “New York’s most exclusive wine tasting experiences“.
Featured on the cover of the Aspen Times (along with a $15/lb halibut).
Shoots streaming video series about wine for the LA Times.
Debuts “Drink Back the Concorde” wine events at the Aspen Classic and at the Music City food festivals.
Begins partnership with Amazon Prime Video to create the uber-popular “Wine & Prime” event series.
Billionaire wins the Gourmand Award for World’s Best Drinks Education Book.
Billionaire wins the IACP Cookbook Award.
Billionaire wins the Gourmand World Cookbook Award for Best in the U.S.
Creates and currently teaches a Stanford undergraduate course called “Ingenious Entrepreneurship.”
Billionaire releases as a two-CD audio book.
Releases How to Drink Like a Billionaire (Regan Arts/Simon & Schuster). Vanity Fair declares that it is “a book you should be reading now.”
Invited to speak at the Aspen Food & Wine Classic for the 12th consecutive year. Curbed calls his events the “#1 best moment of the festival.”
Five publishers bid for Mark’s third wine book.
Forced to undergo spinal surgery for old wrestling injury. Smuggles Château d’Yquem to hospital as liquid security blanket.
Outsmarting Wine enters its 10th printing.
Converts his New York loft into an art-filled hideaway for savoring wine dubbed the “Wine Sanctuary.”
Sent to New York Criminal Court for carrying an empty bottle of 1970 Château Palmer. Pleads not guilty. Beats rap.
Brave New World of Wine wins the Georges Duboeuf Best Wine Book of the Year Award.
Releases Oldman’s Brave New World of Wine (W.W. Norton). The Wall Street Journal calls it “the perfect book for someone who’s just caught the bug, or would like to.”
Invents the “corkscrew pocket,” adds them to inside lining of his suit jackets.
Becomes a popular speaker at top food festivals and major corporations. His performances are deemed “amazing, animated, crowd-pleasing” (Austin Chronicle) and “hilariously entertaining” (Miami magazine).
Sells Vault.com, now a major career portal, to a private equity firm.
Outsmarting Wine published in Japan, Belgium, and in four volumes in France.
Outsmarting Wine wins the Georges Duboeuf Best Wine Book of the Year Award.
Releases Oldman’s Guide to Outsmarting Wine (Penguin). The New Yorker calls it “the perfect primer – concise, evenhanded, fun, and practical.”
Appointed one of the youngest trustees of Stanford, the university’s highest governing body.
Vault declared a “killer app” by the New York Times, “vastly popular” by NPR, and the “best place to prepare for a job search” by Fortune. The company grows to 120 employees yet survives “dot bomb” downturn.
Graduates with a J.D. from Stanford Law School, passes bar exam, but turns down offers from top firms to co-found Vault.com, a media company for job seekers.
Co-authors The Internship Bible.
Co-authors first book, America’s Top Internships (Random House), which is featured on the front page of the Wall Street Journal and becomes a best seller.
Spends an extra year at Stanford to finish a master’s degree in English. (The overriding reason, however, is to continue to operate the Stanford Wine Circle).
Creates and teaches the first of several administrations of the “SoHo Anti-Snob Wine Course” at New York’s Soho Kitchen & Bar after cold-calling its owner. The course is packed from day one.
Arranges for Robert Mondavi, the pioneer of California’s fine wine industry, to lead a tasting at the Stanford Wine Circle.
Creates the campus club Stanford Wine Circle, prompting Wine Spectator to name Mark “Bacchus on the Campus” in a feature article.
Asked to deliver a speech on “character” as president of the National Honor Society at New Jersey high school. Begins speech by talking about the “character of wine”. Foreshadows interest in wine.
Acquires first zoot suit.
Born, Manhattan, with the middle name “Stanford,” derived from a family name. Foreshadows education.
