I am overjoyed to have been interviewed as ‘LA Local Talent’ by LA staple, Voyage LA earlier in November. Their introductory interview can be read below or by clicking this link, and I am sure you will learn some things about me, my business and my weird wine ways that you didn’t know! Also I think you can be a Los Angeleno or Los Angelean?! If anyone can confirm this – that would be greatly appreciated!! Lol…. I may still have some months yet until full submersion….Today we’d like to introduce you to Amelia Singer.

Meet Amelia Singer of Amelia’s Wine

Thanks for sharing your story with us Amelia. So, let’s start at the beginning and we can move on from there.
My father pretty much weaned me on wine and I blame him for why my aspirations were always off the beaten track. Post-college, everyone else I knew was off to law school or the city. Inspired by the English Chef, Jamie Oliver, I wanted to make wine less exclusive and more relatable.Wine is meant to be fun but 11 years ago, people were slightly afraid or snobby about it. My first jobs were picking grapes and making wine around Europe and then South America. Back home in London, I did all the Wine Exams I could whilst working on wine shop floors and doing marketing jobs and wine tasting gigs… I knew that to have a business and career in the wine industry – one of the few where youth is not an asset – it would be important to work my way up and absorb everything. And that I did, for little to no money. Interning and working wherever I could, putting in months of hard graft at vineyards and backing my years of on-the-ground expertise with an internationally respected wine diploma.

Once I got my Diploma I started my business, Amelia’s Wine, by hosting London’s first every wine-centric supper club in my own home. Every week I would host, cook and conduct a tasting for 18 people. We would taste in the first half and then chill out over dinner with the wines. It was an awesome way to bring people together over something educational but also super fun. From there, I got consulting gigs and a lot of corporate and private tasting opportunities. The biggest break in my career however was when my hero Jamie Oliver heard about this crazy girl hosting wine tastings in her apartment. We met and he had me be his ‘wine girl’ on his Drinks Tube Channel. This opened up the doors to now being a host on Hulu’s The Wine Show with Matthew Rhys and Matthew Goode, writing for England’s top food magazine, being a wine ambassador for California and the Rhone and being nominated for internationally acclaimed Wine Communicator and Innovator awards.

Now I am LA-based and am absolutely taking my wine tasting gigs with me – albeit mainly virtually at this point. Back in London, I loved ‘cross dressing’ wine with music, art, philosophy, literature and of course food. I am still pursuing this avenue online and via the various blogs and Instagram lives, I do weekly where I have on different guests from various industries. I am also working on a couple of decks and pilots for wine centric media projects which again showcase the different stories, people and culture behind wine. Wine is one of life’s greatest connectors and I endeavor to portray that in whatever activity I am pursuing – be it through writing, media or tastings.

Overall, has it been relatively smooth? If not, what were some of the struggles along the way?
Noooo!!!! Firstly, you never go into wine for the money!! It is always a hard slog to make your mark in the industry. I also had to work especially hard in my 20’s as being a young woman in the industry, I feel that I need to have double the knowledge of my male counterparts. I would be working during the day and studying or hosting tastings at night. It was full-on as any entrepreneur can relate to.

I also had to carve my own way in the industry and no one really knew what I meant when I said that I wanted to make wine more relatable and mix it with different art forms. I think the UK wine trade thought I was kind of nuts which is why I ended up starting my own company as other peers just didn’t understand what I was trying to achieve. Now that the Wine Show has come out and they see my writing and various gigs – they get it… But for a long time, I know a lot of people thought I was nuts and there was no clear MBA program or path for me to get here.

Alright – so let’s talk business. Tell us about Amelia’s Wine – what should we know?
Amelia’s Wine is now based in LA and UK where I divide my time between creative wine tastings and media projects.

Due to Covid a lot of my tastings have had to be on hold but in the past, I was known for my ‘cross pollinating’ or ‘cross dressing’ wine events. I used to be a jazz and blues singer and therefore, I have a keen interest in pairing music with wine, I have co-hosted wine and music events with the City Of London Sinfonia, Garsington Opera, a Kanye West and Spanish wine tasting in a Laguna Beach art gallery, Jazz wine nights with the singer Lucinda Belle and even sing myself at the O2 Academy Islington for the UK wine trade’s annual charity event SKIN CONTACT Live. Recently I did an online Wine and Hip Hop tasting with my ‘Wine Show’ co-presenter – Jermaine Stone – who hosts a wine and hip hop podcast.

I have also combined wine and literature for various London publishing houses ( Faber, Enitharmon), wine and art events for galleries in London and LA and even do wine and philosophy evenings with writers… Who knew Nietzsche could be such a laugh?!

I am most proud of my company for making wine inclusive and getting communities excited about wine who normally would not have thought it was ‘their thing’. I also have helped mentor younger people who want to get into the trade and who have been overwhelmed where to start. I think my story shows that you can make the wine trade whatever you want it to be as long as you stick to your values and passions.

Any shoutouts? Who else deserves credit in this story – who has played a meaningful role?
My Father deserves the biggest credit! Being successful in business definitely meant he asked me the right questions and made me really engage and challenge each opportunity I accepted and which road I took. He also instilled in me a core set of values which I think is especially important when you blur wine and media!!

Ultimately he gave me hope by passing down the family theory of ‘the lamp post’. Life is nuts with all kinds of adventures – good and bad. But if you have your lamp post which shines brightly with your hopes, dreams and values, and if you make sure to not completely lose sight of it, regardless of the curveballs… then you can’t go too wrong!

I do have a few mentors in the trade who of course can advise me on individuals and other businesses but the majority of my success can really be related to my dad. Tough love but always my ultimate cheerleader.