I started Sommplicity because I loved learning about wine, but the process often felt like an impossible memorization exercise. Regions, grapes, laws, classifications, and terminology all mattered, yet they were difficult to connect. I wanted to understand why each wine tasted the way it did, see the bigger picture, and know where each glass fit within it.
As a visual learner, I began sketching maps, comparisons, and patterns while studying for WSET Level 3 and the Certified Sommelier exam. Climate influences how grapes ripen. Place shapes growing conditions. Grape variety helps determine aroma, flavor, and structure. Decisions in the vineyard and winery shape the final style in the glass. Seeing those relationships changed the way I learned. Every new fact began to fit into a system I was building over time.
Those sketches became the foundation of Sommplicity. I believe wine education can be serious without feeling intimidating, and that classic style shorthands are useful starting points rather than fixed rules. The goal is not to simplify wine until the nuance disappears. It is to make the complexity easier to enter, remember, and use.
I am a Certified Sommelier through the Court of Master Sommeliers and hold WSET Level 3 with Distinction. I completed a harvest in Bordeaux and have worked as a sommelier at events and educational tastings across the Bay Area, where I tested and refined these frameworks in practice. Before pursuing wine full time, I earned my MBA and worked in product management at Google. That background shaped the structured, practical, and visual way I teach today.
Sommplicity is for curious drinkers, wine students, and hospitality professionals who want to understand how the pieces connect, then use that understanding to taste, choose, and explore with more confidence.