7/31/2019 WIN Advisor - People: Sue the Wine Wench

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WINE INDUSTRY NETWORK

ADVISORWRITER:  Jim Brumm EMAIL: press@wineindustrynetwork.com BLOG: wineindustrynetwork.com/blog

Meet Sue Straight, AKA the WineWench®. Sue is not your typical winereviewer/writer/taster. Sue is not yourtypical person.

Born in Santa Monica, California, Sue grew up in the San Fernando Val-ley (and she does a mean “valley girl”imitation). Living on a small ranch withher family, she said she was “ridingbefore I was born.” As a girl she want-ed to be a horse veterinarian when shegrew up, but that was not to be.

“I’m a failed Jewish American Prin-

A WINE-DRENCHED LIFE Sue Straight, AKA, The Wine Wench®

 SUE STRAIGHT,THE WINE WENCH™

“I TEND TO BE IRREVERENT AND LUSTY.

HENCE, THE WINE WENCH® IS A TITLE

THAT SUITS ME PERFECTLY!”

01.09.2012ADVISOR: PEOPLEFEATURE

P  e  o p l e 

A woman sits across from me at alocal coffee shop in Santa Rosa, Cali-fornia. She is animated and upbeat. Asusual, she is talking about wine, andas usual, her story ends with a laughand I can’t help laughing along.

“I think people take wine way too seriously,” she is saying. “I think thatwine should be fun.” She goes on totell a story of filling her bathtub with

red wine and bathing in it. I form amental picture of this . . .

cess,” she said, laughing. “I was al-ways too bohemian to fit into thatworld.”

After high school she worked fora while at a veterinarian hospital in

 southern California and met and mar-ried a man who was both a farrier anda musician. Sue trained horses dur-ing the day and waitressed at night.

 She would roller skate down Ventura

Boulevard to work each day. (At onepoint she was offered a chance to try

out for the Los Angeles Thunderbirdsroller derby team, but that’s another

 story.)

In 1981 Sue moved to Healdsburg, innorthern California’s Sonoma County.One evening, while working as a wait-ress, a regular customer who manageda nearby tasting room offered Sue a

 job at her winery. “I thought, okay . . . Ilike wine,” said Sue, with a smile. Sheaccepted the position and fell into theworld of wine. She never looked back.

There she met the woman who would

mentor her into a life of wine. Winemaker Carol Shelton asked Sue tohelp with some wine tastings. “I got totaste and write up descriptions,” said

 Sue. “Carol noticed that I had a palatethat I could taste subtle flavors in thewines that others missed.” Carol took

 Sue under her wing and eventually invited her to be a judge on a wine tasting panel. Sue did her first wine judging in 1985, at the Cloverdale CitrusFair, which has since evolved into the

 San Francisco Chronicle Wine Compe

 SUE STRAIGHT, THE WINE WENCH®

There are people in the Wine Industry that don’t own vineyards or make wine, yet their impact on our business is indisputable. They arethe people behind our winery associations, our media and our trade and they’re making a difference. “People” was created to acknowedge their role and celebrate their successes.

7/31/2019 WIN Advisor - People: Sue the Wine Wench

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tition. She is now a regular wine judgefor that competition as well as the El

Dorado County Fair, Pacific Rim, andothers.

 Sue has tenaciously pursued herlove of wine, and of sharing that lovewith others. For five years she wrotea column on wine for the San DiegoUnion Tribune where she developed afollowing of loyal readers. In 2001 shehosted a wine-related show on two

 Sonoma County radio stations, KHBGin Healdsburg, and KRSH in SantaRosa. On these shows she did live,on-air tastings and interviewed win-emakers from the region. It was whiledoing radio one day that a friend firstdubbed her with the moniker “WineWench®.”

“I tend to be irreverent and lusty,” said Sue. “Hence, the Wine Wench®is a title that suits me perfectly!”

From the beginning Sue ap-proached her work with a different at-titude from what people had come toexpect from wine reviewers. Insteadof dry, traditional wine-speak, Sue in-fuses her reviews with wit, banter, andirreverent analogies, all of which add

up to fun reading, along with greatinformation on the latest wines avail-

able on the market. Sue describes herself as a rustic,

medium-bodied, slightly-aged-yet- still-enjoyable woman who loves wineand loves to share it with friends andfamily. She approaches her wine re-views the same way.

Here’s how she described one wine:“Slightly sweet and totally refreshing,like Drew Barrymore sitting on a pic-nic blanket in a sunlit field of wildflow-ers, wearing nothing but a crown ofdaisies in her hair.” (I’d buy that wine.)

And another: “Picture Lenny Krav-itz lounging in his bedroom, wearingblack leather pants and eating ripeblackberries.”

“I love what I do,” said Sue with agrin. “I lead a wine-drenched life.”

 Sue feels that instead of wine be-ing something lofty and cerebral, it

 should be accessible, fun, and a partof everyday life.

“Wine is unabashedly sensuous,” she said. “It smells good, it tastesgood, it enhances your daily life, and

it’s good for you.” She laughed andadded, “It’s always an adventure!”

In 2008 Sue started her blogwww.wine-wench.com in order to, as

 she put it, “to gently educate the wineglugging masses; to bring the tastingroom to the Internet.” She is availableto taste and rate wines for anyone. Rat

ing on a scale of one to five stars, sheonly publishes ratings of three stars oabove on the blog so everything youfind there will be good.

Over the past 30 years Sue had beena part of the wine industry doing, as

 she put it, “whatever a Wine Wench®can do,” from managing tasting roomsand wine clubs, helping with crushevent planning, judging wine competitions, consulting, writing, and moreToday Sue is director of sales and marketing for J. Rickards Winery in Clover

dale, California, where her enthusiasmenergy, and excitement have greatlyincreased wine sales since she cameonboard a short time ago. She is also aregular editorial contributor to the magazine Wine Country This Week.

 Soon, in addition to wine tasting, heWeb site will offer Wine Wench® products, from tee-shirts to wine glasses

 She also offers a new service she calls"Back Label Girl™," in which she helpswineries with the writing on their backlabels to help sell their wines. As if althat weren’t enough, Sue is a talented

blues harmonica player, and performsregularly around Sonoma County withher band, Wine Wench & Friends.

But her first love is always the wineWith her unique, refreshing, and

 sometimes cheeky approach, Sue Straight—the Wine Wench®—is helpingto demystify wine and share it with awider audience. She has made winefun again.

To contact Sue, or to submiwines for review, visit her web site ahttp://www.wine-wench.com

All rights reserved. This copyrighted material may not be re-published without permissionby the 

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