Jun 21

Jun 21 Abigail Smyth, Crimson Wine Group

Job Title: Export Director
Location: Petaluma, California

Your Background in Wine:
While living in Sierra Leone, post-Peace Corps service in Senegal, I was sparked by the wine business and moved to Victoria, Australia to gain practical experience. I moved home to Northern California in late 2004 and worked on the DTC side for a few years. I completed a Wine Business MBA to further my professional skills and have since worked in the ever-fascinating world of exports.

What are the top three challenges to maintaining your well-being in your work?
Meetings across vast time zones and cultural divides! Global work travel + jet lag! Setting limits!

What are the top three challenges to maintaining your well-being in your work?
Prioritize exercise, sleep & eating well; maintain rich friendships; look on the bright side!

What other beverages do you drink when you're not drinking alcohol?
Pretty simple - coffee and water.

What inspires you on your journey in the beverage industry?
Every day holds the potential to meet someone with a story.

A quote I love:
"I can resist anything but temptation." Oscar Wilde

What would people be surprised to know about you?
I'm a competitive rower.

What are you most excited about?
Rowing in Alaska this summer and racing in Boston in October; a general change in attitude with the recent positive industry news and reports (Wine Market Council, BMO, etc.); exciting new wine markets to develop.

What's your weirdest wellness hack?
Gargling with salt water to counter respiratory ailments and cooties.

You can connect with Abigail on LinkedIn

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Cathy Huyghe

Cathy Huyghe is a dynamic media professional with a special interest in wine and the spirit of hospitality. She is also an effective, engaging public speaker on subjects ranging from wine and gastronomy to digital media and entrepreneurship.

Cathy is the co-founder and CEO of Enolytics, a big data startup providing business intelligence for the wine industry. She also currently writes for Forbes.com about the business and politics of the wine industry, and for Inc.com about entrepreneurs with a special focus on women. She is the author of the award-winning book Hungry for Wine: Seeing the World through the Lens of a Wine Glass; she was a finalist for the 2016 IWSC Wine Communicator of the Year award; and she won the 2016 Innovator of the Year award from Diaz Communications.

Cathy's writing has appeared in print and online for both general-interest and wine industry publications including the Harvard Business Review network, The Atlantic, Decanter, Food52.com (where she was the "Wine, Unfussed" columnist), DailyBeast, The Boston Globe, the Washington Post, Wine Enthusiast, GlobalPost, Grist.org, and Daily Candy. She has also been featured on the BBC, WNYC, WGBH, and Nevada Public Radio.

Cathy is the founder of 365daysofwine.com and Red White Boston, a digital media company for the wine industry. Red White Boston produced daily content, monthly tasting events, and a location-based iPhone app of video wine recommendations from their network of 30+ local partner stores. While in Boston, she also managed the wine cellar at WGBH public broadcasting station and managed wine events for donors and the public.

Cathy’s restaurant experience started when she knocked on the kitchen door at Chez Panisse in Berkeley. She also has worked for Jean-Pierre Vigato in Paris (at Natachef bistro and at his two-star restaurant, Apicius) and for Thomas Keller at Bouchon in Las Vegas. She studied at La Varenne École de Cuisine in Burgundy, France; she completed the Wine Studies program at Boston University; and she received Advanced Certification from WSET (Wine and Spirits Education Trust).

Cathy received a master’s degree from the Graduate School of Design at Harvard in 2004 and a second master’s degree in Journalism in 2010, also from Harvard. Before that, she received a master’s degree in comparative literature from the City University of New York in 1998 and a bachelor’s degree from Bucknell University in Lewisburg, Pennsylvania in 1995. She is also a trained mediator, and worked for two years at the Program on Negotiation at Harvard Law School on a project in the Middle East.

In April 2008 she founded the Harvard Alumni in Wine and Food special interest group, which provides educational and networking services to the Harvard alumni and current students. She has also served as the President of the Harvard Club of Georgia, and she has begun a term of service on the Board of Directors for the Harvard Alumni Association.

Her other non-profit involvement includes the Women's Solidarity Society at the new National Center for Civil & Human Rights (Atlanta), grant reviewer for the Food Well Alliance (an Atlanta-based organization that supports the local network of 350 urban farms and community gardens), Coach at GOTR (Girls on the Run) in Atlanta, Board Member at the Greening Youth Foundation (Atlanta), Board Member at The Food Project (Boston), and Mediator at the Neighborhood Justice Center (Las Vegas).

She lives in Atlanta with her husband, their twin boys, and their Bernese Mountain dog, Coco.

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