French Broad Vignerons Annual Scholarship

I started my career in wine with a summer job at Total Wine & More while working as a substitute teacher, but my love for wine started with my family. I grew up in a European household with parents who worked in the restaurant industry and understood the importance of wine as an element of both a good meal and a good life. It didn’t take me long to realize just how much I enjoyed learning about, working with, and teaching others about wine once I was working with it professionally. It also didn’t take me long to realize that many of my clients knew very little about wine. Without a history in wine, many of my clients were unsure how to approach wine and often didn’t understand or found elements such as grape varietal, wine style, and region unhelpful, confusing, or saw them just as advertising rather than the important production characteristics they are. I feel that the wine industry has a serious problem with education, outreach, and the dissemination of information about the wines we make, how we make them, and how they can benefit our lives. This communication failure needs to be focused on in the coming years if our industry is to continue growing and with my background in communication and teaching, I can assist in that. I often find it extremely beneficial to help my clients understand what it is they appreciate about wine and how they can expand their knowledge and experience within wine. I love discussing wine with anyone who wants to learn about it and my experience in teaching has helped me to understand how to identify gaps in knowledge and fill them. The industry needs to expand its efforts to educate people about the diversity of wines we produce and the complexity of the wine making process. As well, we need to put more effort into making wine more than just a drink but an experience to enjoy and savor. We need to make wine one of the finer things in life for more people. Of course, as much as I love discussing wine, teaching others about wine, and sharing the joy in wine, I do have personal goals for what I want to accomplish. I hope to learn to create some of the best sparkling wines in the world. I love sparkling wine above all others and want to help to create it both to share it with others, to expand how it can better their experiences and day-to-day lives, and for myself as an expression of my love for the artistry of winemaking. Wine is more than a beverage; wine is one of the finer things in life and I’m extremely grateful I get to savor it and work to share my appreciation of wine with others.