Over 20+ years in fine wine and beverages has helped me develop a method to help identify an individual’s personalized palate based on a private consultation and tasting through a few dozen wines. After that I help fulfill people’s current and future wine needs as they grow and change! My personal wine ethos is “Fine wine made fun” and I strive to make wine less pretentious and more substantive and enjoyable! I manage a list of a few thousand wine collectors and I buy wine from all over the world to satisfy their needs. I would be honored to help you in your wine goals and desires and become your personal sommelier to help you collect and drink better! My goal is to have a mutually beneficial ‘wine relationship’ for people looking for a trusted wine advisor. Please grant me that opportunity😊
I buy wine from all around the world at my day job for Pogo’s Wine & Spirits, Dallas’ original fine wine purveyor since 1987, that is in Highland Park. I work with some of the finest wine and spirits professionals there honing my skills daily and getting exposed to the best beverages in the world! I maintain several different mailing lists that I welcome you to join. I have a general email list that covers the entire world of wine. Then I have several other smaller fine wine lists for the discerning wine lover. They are Champagne/Bubbles, White Burgundy, Red Burgundy, Bordeaux, Rhone Wines, Italian Wines, California Cabernet/Blends, West Coast Pinot Noir. Please email which list(s) you would like to join.
I have worked as a private client sommelier for over a decade. I have been at Pogo’s for five years after a brief stint developing the original Sixty Vines wine concept and making it scalable for the growth it has had. Before that I was the head sommelier and content creator for Dallas’ original private wine club, Graileys. I amassed an amazing amount of experience and exposure to wines going back over a century there and developed life long friends and clients during my time there.
Before private client work, I was an award-winning sommelier at three different iconic DFW restaurants: Stephan Pyles, Grace Fort Worth and FT-33, a small five-star venue that earned restaurant of the year while I was there. During this journey I was exposed to the highest level of dining and pairing possibilities having executed well over 100 wine dinners and tasting menus. In 2012 I won TexSom’s “Texas’ Best Sommelier 2012” award as the state’s best Sommelier and my wine list at FT33 earned a “Top 100 Wine Restaurants in America” nod in 2013 and 2014 from Wine Enthusiast. I earned my Advanced Sommelier designation from the Court of Master Sommeliers in 2013 and have been a Certified Specialist of Wine since 2008. I still do private wine dinners in people’s homes with and without private chefs. If you are interested in getting rates or booking an event, please click here.
I am originally from Arkansas, grew up in Tulsa, Oklahoma, and went to college at the University of Arkansas where I studied International Business with a Finance emphasis and a German minor. I worked to pay for college at a Farm-to-Table restaurant in 1999 where I was exposed to my first great glass of wine: a 1986 Silver Oak Napa Valley Cabernet Sauvignon from an older co-worker’s cellar. It tasted and smelled like nothing I have ever experienced with waves of flavor and a 60 second finish that blew me away! I have been a wine lover ever since!
I worked in financial services in a CFP mentorship program before getting the opportunity to move to Germany to sell marina equipment in my early 20s! I lived there for a few years working and traveling all over Western Europe learning the lay of the land and the various cultures and cuisines. I moved to Dallas in 2005 and have been working in wine since the end of that year because I knew I loved it but didn’t know how to make a living doing it. I credit celebrity sommelier D’Lynn Procter from the SOMM documentaries and movies with exposing me to the professional sommelier path and greatly value his friendship and insight. I have been working diligently for 17 years now towards my Master Sommelier designation and have sat for my theory exam a few times now. I am married to a fellow wine professional for over a decade now and we have two wonderful little boys that are 4 and 9 years old. Wine is intrinsically linked to so much in my life and I would love to share my passion with you as we both grow in our wine lives! Cheers and much love!
