Certified sommelier Liz Martinez is a hospitality and wine professional with over two decades experience designing award winning wine lists, training staff, and managing service for some of America’s best restaurants. Liz has won awards for wine and service from every major national wine magazine and a range of local publications. In 2019, she was awarded Food & Wine magazine sommelier of the year.

Her illustrious résumé includes positions at Carmine’s on Penn in her hometown of Denver, CO, Boulevard Restaurant in San Francisco, Topolobampo and Purple Pig in Chicago. In 2017, Liz relocated to Detroit to serve as Wine Director at luxury steakhouse Prime+Proper and today she serves as Director of Beverage and Hospitality at Birmingham Michigan’s Madam restaurant, where her wine program was nominated as a semi-finalist for the prestigious James Beard Foundation awards.

During her career, Liz has consistently elevated service and wine standards in a wide range of restaurants throughout the United States. Her commitment to thoughtful, humble, organized, polished, and anticipatory service continues to delight guests and draw widespread acclaim.

Follow her on Instagram at @winenomadic.

Elizabeth Dames is the Wine Director for Capital City Club, a private club in the Atlanta area, as well as the CEO for her own consulting company, Wine Entwined. She is Level 3 Certified with the Wine and Spirit Education Trust, and is a French Wine Scholar having passed with Highest Honors. Additionally, she is an Advanced Sommelier with the Court of Master Sommeliers and is preparing to sit for the Master’s Level Exam in 2022.

Born overseas, Caleb Taft spent his formative years in San Diego. After college, he began cooking professionally, but a move to San Francisco brought him into the world of wine. He worked as a retail wine buyer for a few years, before becoming the National Sales Manager for Vinum Cellars, where he sold wine in 30 states as well as a few international markets. Caleb then joined the staff of nopa restaurant as a manager in their first year of operations. He left to become the Wine Director and manager of Camino in Oakland and later returned to retail at Arlequin Wine Merchants in San Francisco. After a stint in sales, he helped open Nari Restaurant in San Francisco, where he helped build a diverse team focused on service and crafting guest experiences.

Educated at Cornell University in Marketing, Cristina has always worked in the world of hospitality. Daughter of hoteliers on Lake Garda, she worked at the Bayerischer Hof in Munich, the Grand Hotel in Rimini and numerous other European luxury hotels.

5 years ago she created Club Appeal, a consulting company specializing in luxury hospitality with a focus on the world of golf and wine, which she promoted with her own exclusive brand WineHO.

Sommellier, WSET certified, Cristina is a professor and lecturer at CUOA Business School in the Master of Wine Business and speaker at numerous international conferences (e.g. IWINETC, Tebec, Atlas) related to the world of wine tourism.

Haley Moore is the Founder of Acquire: a hospitality company in San Francisco CA, that is centered around bringing people together over food and wine. Acquire curates in person and virtual wine experiences, manages cellars for private clients and consults on beverage programs for restaurants across the country. Moore spent 15 years as a Sommelier and Wine Director in San Francisco, California. Her career galvanized in 2007, when she became the Wine Director at bacar at the age of 24. In 2009, she became the Lead Sommelier at Spruce, a one Michelin starred restaurant with a Grand Award-Winning wine list from the Wine Spectator. In 2012, she joined Stock & Bones as their Wine and Spirits Director overseeing four restaurants: Town Hall, Salt House, Anchor & Hope and Jersey in San Francisco. Today, she consults as Wine Director for Empress by Boon in San Francisco's Chinatown. 

She passed the Court of Master Sommeliers Certified Exam in 2006 and is currently wrapping up the WSET Diploma Program. Next, she plans to pursue the Master of Wine Diploma, which is one of the highest achievements in the world of wine. Haley has been featured in articles both locally and nationally including: Forbes, Food & Wine Magazine, Wine & Spirits Magazine, Wine Enthusiast, The San Francisco Chronicle, MORE Magazine, The Sommelier Journal, and was named one of Restaurant Hospitality Magazine’s ‘Top 30 under 30’ Hospitality Professionals of America in 2008.