Chris Cree: A Master of Wine

As young as he could remember, Chris Cree, who will be featured at this year’s Northampton Community College (NCC) Food and Wine Gala, always loved the culinary world. He watched Julia Child on television, and home cooked family meals were a large part of his family’s dinner time tradition in Hunterdon County, NJ.   

Later in Cree’s childhood, his mother remarried an airline pilot, and the food and wine experiences Cree would hear from his stepfather fascinated him. “I’d hear about these adventures he had, and he’d bring back some of those influences to our dinner table. Pretty soon, wine became as big a passion as food was for me,” Cree said.  

In high school, Cree applied for a job at a wine and liquor shop, Central Liquors in Flemington, NJ, and this was his first exposure to wine sales at 18 years old. After some time at the store, he developed and ran a wine department in 1979, hoping to earn money for college. Life, however, had other plans for him.  

Doors kept opening in the wine business for Cree. “As a buyer for the wine department, they allowed me to work hands-on with the products. I’d go to tasting events and meet the suppliers in the shop, and they were from all over,” he said.   

Cree had the unique opportunity to visit the suppliers after forming relationships with them. He could travel to the suppliers at no cost if he flew on his stepfather's airline. Cree would set up trips for himself to see their property, taste their wines and study their process.  

“That’s one of the things that kept me interested in it. Wine making is a combination of farming, weather conditions, altitude, geology, and the list goes on. Nearby lakes, rivers and oceans, for example, influence the climate of a winery, and these and other things can make each wine process and taste entirely different from a winery in a different region.”  

The beauty of wine country in places he visited throughout Europe, Australia and the United States, along with the passion of winemakers, struck Cree. Some of his favorite places to visit were wineries in France. One, Clos Ste. Magdelein, he recalls, came with a breathtaking view. “It is right on the sparkling Mediterranean. It’s a stunning property, and a wonderful family owns it,” Cree recalls.  

“Small family domains were some of my favorites. I’d taste wines in their kitchen, home or small cellar. I worked at the Domaine Weinbach in France for a few weeks. It was an old 14th century monastery, which is now their home and winery.”  

Eventually, at 24 years old, Cree and a few partners began an import, marketing and wine and distribution business based in Princeton, NJ, where they worked to facilitate sales for wineries in Europe, California and Chile. “I learned a lot about marketing, shipping, and merchandising from that venture,” he said.  

Cree sold his first business and moved on to operating a retail business, Clinton Wine and Spirits. That’s when he looked into pursuing his Master of Wine degree through the Institute of Masters of Wine, which was the highest degree one could get in the business. In 1989, the Institute began offering the exam and courses in New York, so, Cree started the program in 1993.   

“We took a deep dive into the entire wine business. There were exams on grape growing, wine making, the business of wine, temperature control, and more. We also had to do a 3-day long blind tasting and identify specific notes about 12 wines per day – from grape variety and method of production to maturity and quality. My dissertation was on red wine making,” Cree said of the program.  

In 1996, he was among only 13 Americans to graduate from the program.  

Cree soon became an in-demand wine consultant, notably opening The Chelsea Wine Vault in Manhattan, the 56 Degree Wine in Bedminster, NJ, revamping Newark Airport’s Terminal C with a dynamic food and wine program, and becoming managing editor at WineAccess.   

Cree opened the Cree Wine Company in 2020, restoring an 1813 farmhouse that had once functioned as a tavern but later closed in 2012. Today, the restaurant has a wine bar along with a wine school. Cree and his staff offer classes to students at NCC who are interested in getting into the wine trade after graduation. The Wine and Spirits Education Trust (WSET) courses are mandatory for students who are interested in becoming Masters of Wine themselves.  

When Cree learned about the Northampton Community College (NCC) Food and Wine Gala through mutual friends and committee chairs, Mike Molewski and Anthony Onorata, he wanted to be a big part of the event.  

“Education is the key to anything in life, and if I can use my skills to help support something like this, I’m going to do that. I’m very involved in charitable organizations because they are dear to my heart, particularly anything involving youth and helping students and children get further in life.”  

To meet Cree in person and share in his knowledge of the industry, you can purchase tickets to this year’s NCC Food and Wine Gala on May 31, which helps support NCC student scholarships.