About Your Carolina Wine Expert
Joni Mahaffey-Rauschenbach is a true southern belle. As a graduate of USC, she took her first post-graduate job working as one of PYA/Monarchs top sales reps with a territory including all of the Upstate and Western Carolina. Her family jokes that she has worked in the hospitality industry since age 14 when she opened her own Icee stand right in downtown Tryon. Her strong passion for food and entertaining, however, led her back to Johnson & Wales Graduate school of Culinary Arts in Vail, Colorado where she trained and worked in several of Colorado’s top resorts honing her exceptional culinary skills. It was at this time, that she met her husband Rich and soon moved to Long Beach Island to work at the famous Green Gables Inn and Restaurant as well as catering group events on the weekends. Throughout the past 15 years, she has been working in the wine and spirit industry where she managed many sales teams on the distributor and the supplier levels as well as coordinating and hosting wine and cognac dinners. Her work has allowed her to travel extensively in the US and abroad visiting some of the most magnificent vineyards on the planet. She handled brands that are well known to the public as well as some very eclectic, hard to find wines. Her jobs have always tapped into her superior wine and restaurant knowledge by using her to educate restauranteurs and their staff especially in New York State and Manhattan. Most recently, she and Rich have spent the last five years completely restoring the Saluda Inn and have created quite a cozy wine bar in its Cellar. Please come back and visit us on the web, or stop by at The Saluda Inn & Wine Cellar.
Thank you,
YOUR CAROLINA WINE EXPERT
Open Thurdays and Fridays 7:00 pm
or by appointment
229 Greenville Street • Saluda, NC 28773
Phone 828.749.9698