Today we’d like to introduce you to Pamela Wood.
Hi Pamela, thanks for joining us today. We’d love for you to start by introducing yourself.
Pamela Wood
Founder & Owner Park City Wine Club, LLC
Certified Wine Educator, Certified Sommelier, American Wine Expert, Hospitality Beverage Specialist, Director of Education with Culinary Wine Institute
A love of travel, different cultures, world history and wine, is what led me to pursue my passion of all things wine.
Moving from California’s Monterey Bay area to Utah in 1998, I began working first at Snowbird, then Deer Valley Resort. This led to many travel opportunities, where I always found myself near wine regions. Upon exploring this fascination for what goes into the bottle a new passion was ignited, and I’ve never looked back. Creating a wine culture was needed especially up in the Park City area where we have so many people visit from all over the world. Sharing my love of wine with others has led me to pursue more education, more travel and a more in depth love of the vine and wine.
I received my Intro Sommelier with the Court of the Master Sommelier and became a Certified Sommelier with International Wine Guild in 2011, followed by Certified Specialist of Wine (CSW) in 2015 through the Society of Wine Educators, and in 2018 obtained Certified Wine Educator (CWE), only shared by 443 others in the world, which allows me to teach anywhere on the planet. In June of 2020, during the COVID lockdown I was able to pass the American Wine Expert course with honors and in May of this year I became one of only a few hundred with the Hospitality Beverage Specialist (HBS) credential. I am currently in a 3 years program studying, tasting and testing to become an National Wine Judge.
I founded Park City Wine Club in 2012 to bring wine tasting, pairing and fun to our community, showcasing menu items from many local restaurants and tasting wines from all over the world. Events take place monthly in Park City and the greater Salt Lake area. My love of travel is now combined with leading wine tours both domestic and international enjoying many wine regions and making lasting friendships and memories. In addition, I am the state educator for the employees of Utah Department of Alcohol and Beverage Services, a Professor since 2011 with Fox School of Wine and the Director of Education with the Culinary Wine Institute.
“Rather a novice or enthusiast there is something for everyone in the world of wine!”
Alright, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
Not always. Opening a business that focuses on wine in Utah has a learning curve and some hoops to jump through for getting the special licensing as an educator, then understanding how and what is allowed in promoting and putting events together. Once I got a handle on that the next hurdle was getting people to come, or so I thought. I held my first event at Ruth’s Chris in Park City, August 2012 with then Mayor Dana Williams cutting the ribbon on this new endevour. I was hoping to get 60 people to attend – we ended up with almost 90 and had a waiting list! I guess Park City was hungry for a fun, educational wine culture.
Through the years there have been ups and downs and then Covid, well that was a tough time for everyone, but I learned how to keep people engaged and keep my business alive through virtual classes and tasting kits. I am so fortunate to has such an amazing following locally and from all over the United States. I truly enjoy what I do and share. I feel adversity makes us grow, overcome and continue on.
Alright, so let’s switch gears a bit and talk business. What should we know?
Park City Wine Club (PCWC), a fun, innovative members club that focuses on learning, sharing, tasting and enjoying wine! PCWC was established in 2012 by mePamela Wood, a Certified Sommelier, Certified Wine Educator and more. Educational, fun wine events are offered to enjoy, explore and educate members on wine, food & wine and wine history. PCWC offers 2-3 events most every month in both Park City and the great Salt lake City area. Throughout the year PCWC will donate a percentage of proceeds from some events to local non-profits to help support our local community. Since we opened in 2012 we have donated over $15,000 to a variety of local organizations.
PCWC offers members’ exclusive wine tour experiences to various wine regions in the US as well as internationally, in Summer and Fall. From novice to enthusiast there’s something for everyone in the world of wine!
In addition to wine club events, Pamela Wood also provides personal and private events for your family, your friends, your company and co-workers. Pamela also offers one on one cellar management, helping those with a wine collection, organize, know and understand the wines in their collection.
What were you like growing up?
Born in Hollywood, CA and moving up to the mountains of Big Bear Lake, CA , I was an outdoorsy girl. Learned to snow ski at 3 and water ski at 5 – plus camping, fishing and hiking were just normal activities as kid. (pretty similar to Park City life).
Upon graduation I moved to Costa Mesa, CA for community college and to discover the beach, which I longed for after living in the mountain all my life. There was a whole new world to discover. Next was a transfer to Santa Cruz, CA to finish college. I spent 12 years in Santa Cruz, finished college, got married and later divorced, embarked on a career as a real estate loan officer, then mortgage broker and still made time to go to the beach or up to Tahoe in winter to ski. Living in Santa Cruz on the North end of beautiful Monterey Bay I had the opportunity to discover wineries and really good wine and Sonoma and Napa weren’t that far away. At one point I took a class in wine appreciation, not knowing that a few decades later that spark would rekindle after moving to Utah in 1998.
Moving from the California coast to Sandy Utah was a dit difficult, the culture is Utah was different and there was no ocean, but I discovered the amazing national parks, the many lakes, and the amazing difference between northern Utah to the red rock of southern Utah. Still there was one thing missing – a wine culture, a gathering of people to enjoy and taste one of the worlds oldest beverages. It wasn’t on my radar to open a business at first. I worked at Snowbird for 6 years then onto Deer Valley – where I still work seasonally for 21 years now. I was busy and happy, but soon I felt a nagging to do something and friends would say “You’re so good at it – wine that is, explaining and teaching about wine -myou make it so easy for us to understand”. Now tha’s a great compliment from your piers. So I decided to start on the road to become a Sommelier and an educator – I’ve never looked back, just forward and now here we are.
I guess you can say I am a very optimist, positive and outgoing person, I always try to find a solution or another way to achieve and even though there are failures, I think you learn to try again, do it different or learn to accept when it is not meant to be and move on to a different approach.
I have always said since a teenager life is too short to be unhappy and only you have the ability to make a change. Has that been easy, no – but it does keep me moving forward and picking myself up when its a tough time and continue to grow as a person – Yes.
I hope to share wine with you soon – Chees!
Pricing:
- $30 for anyone over 21 to join the wine club
- $55 for 2 people in the same household to join
- Only $15 or $25 to renew your membership and help support PCWC business
- 10% – that’s what PCWC donates from every membership to Nuzzle’s & Co every year
- From $35 up to $175 The range of cost for wine events and full service wine dinners
Contact Info:
- Website: https://parkcitywineclub.com
- Instagram: @pcwineclub
- Facebook: pcwineclub
- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/pamela-wood-3b686990
