We created Elevage Wine Coaching to be the support network that so many wine students need.
Studying wine is often a solo endeavor.
You may attend classes and tastings with other folks, but you have to work out a lot of things on your own - particularly how to study and retain all that you're learning - which can be a very lonely process.
That loneliness of studying wine really hit home for us during the pandemic when we were both finishing up the WSET Diploma--one of the most difficult and stressful certifications to achieve.
This course overwhelms wine students even in the best of times.
But cut off from the in-person support of classes and tastings, it became even more daunting.
Fortunately for us, we found a wonderful online study group and each other.
Working together with other wine students from around the world highlighted the importance of having a robust support network. It is so easy to get burnt out and discouraged during your studies. And when you feel your passion for wine (the very reason why you started this journey) waning, the answer is not to read more books, taste more wine or memorize more facts.
The answer is to find support. To find help and friends who have walked that same path. We know the challenges of this journey and how hard it is to do it alone.
We also know what it takes to make it through to the other side.
Together, we’ll get you there too.
Our Team
Meet Noelle
While many wine geeks give credit to a bottle for their “a-ha!” moment in wine, Noelle’s interest was sparked by her first wine instructor. After a 10-year career in tax law, she enrolled in a Sensory Evaluation class at Northwest Wine Academy in Seattle, Washington (seeking a little inspiration - and resuscitation!). Her instructor’s enthusiasm was infectious, and Noelle was hooked.
Since that first class, her passion for wine has been reignited time and again by taking classes with dynamic, knowledgeable and supportive wine educators. She wants to pay this forward by guiding wine students and having a positive impact on their journeys just as her instructors had on hers.
Noelle earned her WSET Diploma (with Merit!) in 2021 and holds the FWS, IWS and SWS certifications through the Wine Scholar Guild. She teaches IWS and WSET courses with the Wine & Spirit Archive wine school and also developed an introductory wine course for the Gonzaga Wine Institute – her law school alma mater.
Noelle is currently living in Southern California with her husband and sweet Labrador Maggie . . . but she remains a Washington wine gal at heart!
Meet Amber
Two Truths and a Lie. Can you pick them out?
A.) It was a trip to Disney’s EPCOT center and a bottle of Valckenberg Madonna Riesling that led to Amber being one of the founding members of Wikipedia’s Wine Project where, as User:Agne27, she created over 800 wine articles and substantially wrote many more including Cabernet Sauvignon, Chardonnay, Barolo and Malolactic Fermentation.
B.) Amber and her wife, Beth, were married with Karen MacNeil’s Wine Bible.
C.) Dom Perignon invented Champagne.
A history geek, baseball geek and Star Trek geek, this Missouri native used to read the Encyclopedia Britannica for fun as a kid but definitely found friends easier to come by as an adult once she focused her geekiness on wine.
With over 15 years in the wine industry working retail, at wineries, teaching and writing, Amber also knows the serious side of wine. In addition to certificates in winemaking and wine marketing & sales from the Northwest Wine Academy, she is a Certified Specialist of Wine with the Society of Wine Educators and has recently finished her WSET Diploma.
Now based in London, Amber knows that she couldn’t have gotten this far without finding the joy (and fun!) in wine. As a coach, she strives to bring that same joie de vie to helping wine students with their studies.