Mar 24

Mar 24 Elizabeth Dames, Wine Entwined

Location: Atlanta, Georgia (USA)
Title: Wine Director, Capital City Club, and Owner of Wine Entwined Consulting

Years in the Industry:
Ten. I started my career in private clubs in 2012 and was on the track to be a General Manager. Along the way I started taking wine classes in 2013 to improve my knowledge for my Food and Beverage roles. I was bitten by the wine bug almost immediately, as it aligned with many of my interests (food, travel, foreign language, culture etc). I spent 6 years running the wine program for a private club in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, then left to work on the distributor side for just under 2 years for the Lauber Division of Southern Glazer’s Wine & Spirits before moving to Atlanta. I currently run the wine program for one of the largest private clubs in the country as well as running my own consulting business. I jokingly call myself a pin collector because there has only been a period of about 1 year since I started that first wine class in 2013 that I haven’t been studying for some wine certification.

My Top 3 Challenges to Wellness:

I don’t know how to say no
I am a people pleaser to a fault – overextending myself to be sure I am pleasing other people
The deep seated feeling that I’m not good enough feeds my constant need to be doing more

How I Keep it Together To Stay Well:

Meditation – even just a 5-minute practice helps settle my anxiety
Exercise – particularly running. The solitude and ability to let my mind wander while I’m on the road always recharges me .
My husband – he helps keep the balance in our family and reminds me that I’m doing great

What Inspires Me:
Stories of heroism and risk for someone’s passion – like the story of the Hochar family of Château Musar who harvested grapes under gunfire for the years during the Lebanese Civil War, or the story of Mary Novak of Spottswoode Winery who had five children and a brand new wine estate when her husband suddenly and tragically died of a heart attack. After his death, she didn’t back down from the challenge of managing the 31-acre estate and continuing to raise her children. These stories inspire me and exemplify the beauty of perseverance.

A Quote I Love:
“It is the small everyday deeds of ordinary fold that keep the darkness at bay. Small acts of kindness and love.” Gandalf, The Hobbit

You can connect with Elizabeth on LinkedIn and Instagram and through her website.

Know Someone Who Would Like To Be A Part Of ABG?

Tell Us!

Help ABG grow into a stronger global community that supports wellness for the long term. Click the link below to nominate someone to be featured in ABG's Community Profile!

Nominate A New Member

Leave a comment

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.

Website