Patrick Comiskey is an American

United States

The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

 wine

Wine

Wine is an alcoholic beverage, made of fermented fruit juice, usually from grapes. The natural chemical balance of grapes lets them ferment without the addition of sugars, acids, enzymes, or other nutrients. Grape wine is produced by fermenting crushed grapes using various types of yeast. Yeast...

 critic and a senior correspondent for Wine & Spirits

Wine & Spirits

Wine & Spirits is an American wine magazine. With offices in New York and San Francisco, the magazine publishes eight issues annually.In addition to publisher and editor-in-chief Joshua Greene, among the contributors are Tara Q. Thomas, Patrick Comiskey, Patricio Tapia, Peter Liem, with additional...

, chief critic for non-California

California wine

California wine has a long and continuing history, and in the late twentieth century became recognized as producing some of the world's finest wine. While wine is made in all fifty U.S. states, up to 90% of American wine is produced in the state...

 domestic

American wine

American wine has been produced for over 300 years. Today, wine production is undertaken in all fifty states, with California producing 89 percent of all US wine...

 wines, and writes about wines of California, Oregon

Oregon wine

The state of Oregon in the United States has established an international reputation for its production of wine. Oregon has several different growing regions within the state's borders which are well-suited to the cultivation of grapes; additional regions straddle the border between Oregon and the...

 and Washington

Washington Wine

Washington wine is wine produced from grape varieties grown in the U.S. state of Washington. Washington ranks second in the United States in the production of wine, behind only California. By 2006, the state had over of vineyards, a harvest of of grapes, and exports going to over 40 countries...

. Comiskey also contributes regularly to Los Angeles Times

Los Angeles Times

The Los Angeles Times is a daily newspaper published in Los Angeles, California, since 1881. It was the second-largest metropolitan newspaper in circulation in the United States in 2008 and the fourth most widely distributed newspaper in the country....

and Zester Daily

Zester Daily

Zester Daily is a food and wine online magazine, published by a team led by Corie Brown, a former writer and editor for the Los Angeles Times...

, and has been published in variousperiodicals such as San Francisco Chronicle

San Francisco Chronicle

thumb|right|upright|The Chronicle Building following the [[1906 San Francisco earthquake|1906 earthquake]] and fireThe San Francisco Chronicle is a newspaper serving primarily the San Francisco Bay Area of the U.S. state of California, but distributed throughout Northern and Central California,...

, Food & Wine

Food & Wine

Food & Wine is a monthly magazine published by American Express Publishing. It was founded in 1978 by Ariane and Michael Batterberry. It features recipes, cooking tips, travel information, restaurant reviews, chefs, wine pairings and seasonal/holiday content and has been credited by The New York...

and Bon Appétit

Bon Appétit

Bon Appétit describes itself as "a food and entertaining magazine" and is published monthly. Named after the French phrase for "Enjoy your meal", it was started by M. Frank Jones in Kansas City in 1956...

.

Comiskey has bachelor's degree

Bachelor's degree

A bachelor's degree is usually an academic degree awarded for an undergraduate course or major that generally lasts for three or four years, but can range anywhere from two to six years depending on the region of the world...

s in English and psychology from the University of Wisconsin–Madison

University of Wisconsin–Madison

The University of Wisconsin–Madison is a public research university located in Madison, Wisconsin, United States. Founded in 1848, UW–Madison is the flagship campus of the University of Wisconsin System. It became a land-grant institution in 1866...

, and is a former sommelier

Sommelier

A sommelier , or wine steward, is a trained and knowledgeable wine professional, commonly working in fine restaurants, who specializes in all aspects of wine service as well as wine and food matching...

. In June 2010 it was reported he is writing a book about the American Rhône-movement

Rhone Rangers

The Rhone Rangers are a group of winemakers who promote the use of grape varieties from the Rhône Valley in the south of France. They are mostly based in the Central Coast of California and are now organized into a not-for-profit organization for the promotion of wines containing at least 75% of...

.