WHIT + WINE

Whitney Pope is a Washington, DC-based certified sommelier with 15 years of experience shaping high-impact experiential and VIP hospitality events for corporate clients, lifestyle and luxury brands. Whitney has been featured in Glamour, Ebony, SevenFifty Daily, Pix, Imbibe, and on The Italian Wine Podcast. In June 2021 she moderated the Wines of Germany x VinExpo America panel "Germany Goes Green: Sustainability in the German Wine Industry." Whitney’s love affair with wine began in 2010 while working in wine retail and culinary events. She became a CMS Certified Sommelier in 2012 in four months after completing the International Culinary Center’s Sommelier Intensive program, having learned from four Master Sommeliers. WHIT + WINE is available for: Virtual Tastings In-person Tastings Corporate Tastings Food and Wine Pairings VIP Gifting Previous corporate clients include Coty, Facebook and ViacomCBS

I meet my clients where they are. For me, that means that at the very beginning of any tasting, I encourage the guests to talk about wine the same way they would with a good friend, or describe a dish. I emphasize that wine is similar to food; we each come to the table with unique experiences and cultures that inform our viewpoint. You don’t need to have the exact phrase, the perfect words – just an open mind because the glass will unify our conversation. Wine is for everyone and there's absolutely no somm-splaining when I lead a tasting. I make sure that each guest feels comfortable to be themselves. I am active in helping seed change in the wine industry and am involved with the following non-profits: Industry Sessions, a natural wine study group empowering BIPOC wine professionals across the U.S. & Canada, along with The Roots Fund and The Hue Society.

I consider wine as an agricultural product, to borrow from The New York Times Wine Critic, Eric Asimov, "…think of wine as food. If political, environmental and ethical considerations enter into your decisions about which foods to buy, they should inform your wine-buying as well." So, wine then becomes part of your toolkit to engage complex and heady topics like climate change, sustainability, labor, etc. Consider this, approximately 76% of the wine sold in the U.S. comes from just 10 large wine brands! This is why WHIT + WINE focuses on wine that is made from organically or biodynamically grown grapes.