Meet Your Guide
Meet Gabe, Our Estate Sommelier and Your Host for All Things Wine, Wisdom, and Gary Farrell
Hello and welcome back!
We have talked about the journey of exploration that Gary Farrell as a winery is on, as well as how understanding a wine label is a map to your own journey of wine discovery. Yet, if we’re taking all these journeys together, you might be wondering, who is our guide?
As I mentioned in our first post, my name is Gabe, and I am the Estate Sommelier for Gary Farrell Winery. But what does that mean? What does a sommelier do at a winery? Why am I the lucky team member who gets to write these posts? Great questions!
First of all, yes, I am a Level II Certified Sommelier with the Court of Master Sommeliers, having passed the exam in 2012 after seven years working in the industry, mostly on the restaurant side at that time. I came out to wine country for harvest in 2010 to do a winemaking internship in Napa, fell in love with the area and never left (I was already in love with wine…). That was an invaluable learning experience that gave me winemaking knowledge I still use today, but it also taught me that I’m not a winemaker. My passion is for people, education, and hospitality-- I want to connect with people and help them connect with wine. When I realized after that harvest that there are jobs where I could pursue my passion for wine and people working for a winery, it was a dream come true.
Since then, I have worked at four wineries in Sonoma and Napa in a wide array of hospitality and education roles, always striving to enhance my broader wine knowledge while also gaining detailed expertise in the world class regions I’m fortunate to live and work in. Additionally, once I realized I wouldn’t be going back to restaurants and wanted to ensure I was performing at the highest levels for the role I now had in the wine industry, I pursued and passed the rigorous examinations to be a Certified Wine Educator through the Society of Wine Educators in 2015.
Although that explains a little about me and my professional background, I also want to emphasize how meaningful it is for me to do what I do specifically at Gary Farrell. After working almost 20 years in the industry, getting hired here in 2021 was like coming full circle in my career. i.e. Gary Farrell was literally one of the first wines I fell in love with shortly after I had my wine epiphany moment working as a busser in a wine-centric restaurant. I have held the wines and brand in high esteem ever since, and I couldn’t be more thrilled about getting to work here and be a part of this pivotal moment of evolution we are currently undergoing.
And what is it I do here that I’m so happy to be doing at Gary Farrell? My role is quite versatile and encompasses many things, including:
Staff wine education and being an expert resource about our wines, history, and the greater world of wine
Collaborating with our hospitality team to curate our guest experience and food program
Leading all things food & wine pairing for onsite and offsite events and happenings
Creating and hosting Gary Farrell’s monthly “Somm Series” events
Inventory of and organization/management of our onsite wine storage area (i.e. I touch just about every case that comes and goes from the winery)
Working with the Marketing team to produce content and make wine recommendations
So when it was mentioned to me that we’d be starting a Substack account and if I’d be interested in being the voice of the winery to connect with all of you wonderful readers, you can imagine I jumped right on it because this is what I love to do—connect good people with good wine and good information about wine and our winery.
Now you know I mean it when I say it is truly my pleasure to be your guide on this journey, and why I was selected to be the one to take us all on it. I’m very excited about all the great topics we’re going to get to explore, as well as introduce you to the other amazing people who make Gary Farrell Winery and wines all that they are.
In the meantime, because this is my passion, my somm services don’t have to be for winery purposes only and I’d love to hear from you directly: hosting a dinner party? Ask me for food and wine pairing suggestions! Questions about wine or topics you’d like to see in this blog? Let me know! Email me at gabe@garyfarrellwinery.com.
Or, if you’re in the area and want to attend one of my educational Somm Series events in person, you can check availability on the “Events” page of our website.
Finally, I would be remiss if I didn’t pair today’s post about me with a chilled glass of our Durell Vineyard Chardonnay: a vibrant and complex wine that comes from a historic vineyard (i.e. great educational opportunity), represents the most planted grape in California (great wine factoid), and highlights the fact that I’m not afraid to say I LOVE Chardonnay (though they all can’t be as good as ours 😉)
Gabe
