A Culinary Connoisseur with a passion for flavour building. Specializing in Seasonings, Herbs & Spices.

Sommelier at Maialino Mare in Washington, D.C. Certified Sommelier, CMS

After working in the Restaurant Le Beaujolais, a family-friend's Banff restaurant in the summer of 2010, I started taking online wine courses from every provider I could find. I finally landed with WSET and dove head first into my Level 3, followed up with enrolling into Niagara College's Winemaking Diploma in 2012.
After discovering that my talents were not in the painstaking art of winemaking, I took some time off to find my career feet again - where I found some other roots and got married. I eventually managed a wine shop in Calgary, AB, and started a family. It's been a blur since then - between having more children, moving back to Toronto, and the pandemic. How does one re-start a wine career that barely took off before having kids?
I'm trying to figure that out, and that's why I'm here.

Charlotte is a hospitality professional with over 10 years of experience in various front of house roles. She is currently studying for the WSET Diploma.

Hello!
I'm searching for a wine community to learn and share my love for with with.
Looking forward to joining this amazing group.

Serena

My name is Shreeya and I wish to expand my knowledge on wine and excel within the industry. I am currently working in web marking, but I have previously worked at The Wine Shop and Tasting Room as an Associate and Hostess. My interest in the wine grew as I learned about various grapes, regions and environmental factors that go hand-in-hand in producing an outstanding grape. I served flights over the bar and shared conversations with clients and I decided to enhance my knowledge on taking a wine course. I have completed the the WSET Level 3 and I look to gain more hands on experience in this field and the guidance necessary in pursuing a career in wine.

I am a grad from the University of Calgary where I received my BSc. in Biological sciences and a minor in Analytical chemistry. Soon after then I took a job in Kelowna as a cidermaker and took my Winemaking Diploma from UC Davis. I have since been working as an assistant winemaker and making things like piquette on the side! I have also completed my WSET2 and working on 3.

I am a first-generation Filipino Canadian and proud Winnipegger. My path has been unconventional in an already unconventional field. I have been working in restaurants for over 30 years but did not like wine for about the first ten! But I found my way after moving to Vancouver, and took a WSET class, then the ISG Sommelier Diploma and then never looked back. Wine has taken me around the world and I've worked in in restaurants 13 countries and done four harvests, and worked briefly in a sake brewery during brewing season. The pandemic kept me and many others still and there was plenty of time to sleep, dream, read, and reflect. How I live my live - my values and choices - definitely inform how I buy wine and create lists and how I educate my team. What I learned in those 18 months of lockdown was that I can do more, and I am able to more. This has never been more true for me now, as the first woman to lead the wine program at a 71-year old family-run restaurant in Seattle, Washington. The wine program is only a little bit about wine and leveraging buying power (though that's still pretty fun), but it's challenging how we talk about wine, present wine, learn about wine; about who has been included and excluded in our spaces, and about making it fun and accessible for everyone at all levels.

I am a sustainable agriculture student and aspiring winemaker. Food and nature are my two favorite ways to connect with people. Dissecting flavours and textures, and contemplating how they came to be are running themes in my mind. The dream would be to contribute to the industry by promoting the interest and establishment of sustainable practices, growing good grapes in healthy vineyards while making amazingly delicious wines.

I am a risk management professional in banking industry, have quantitative finance background.
I am a wine enthusiast, would love to learn more about the drink and the industry.