Meet Wine Gal Nicole Whittle!

City gal makes wine country home

From modeling in Europe to teaching fashion in the city, plus a decade in food marketing and now wine design - here's a wine gal that's done it all. She loves to talk about wine, shop for wine, plan winery visits, read interesting wine books, share social posts by cool wine peeps and be in the loop on new wine releases. Hanging out with Nicole means road trips to private wine tastings, traipsing through vineyards with a camera, making time for beach adventures and eating well. She knows how to make a difference and contributing to the wine industry is her latest project. Did I mention she's the gal who amplified our branding with that super awesome logo? Thanks Nicole for contributing to Good Wine Gal's community. For more about Nicole keep reading.

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What you do?
I’m a branding and graphic design creative from Vancouver, now living in wine country, and currently working freelance. I have spent my career building a diverse creative portfolio of branding, packaging design, and photography art direction, for clients ranging from large global companies to start-ups that are driven by passion and purpose. I love growing brands through design by capturing the hearts and minds of consumers everywhere.

How did you fall in love with wine?
I attended the Food & Wine Classic in Aspen (2015) where I went to daily wine tastings, culinary workshops and panel discussions by wine experts. These wine discussions had such fascinating attention to subtlety, language, culture and history—it captured my imagination. The more I experienced, the bigger I realized wine to be. At that moment, I made the decision to study wine and came back to Aspen for the Court of Master Sommeliers Level 1 Sommelier in 2016. From there I’ve continued my studies with the WSET program, the Oregon Wine Board, and now with Good Wine Gal.

Why you make time for Good Wine Gal?
The (late) Anthony Bourdain so perfectly expresses here how I feel about wine, “The more places I see and experience, the bigger I realize the world to be. The more I become aware of, the more I realize how relatively little I know of it, how many places I have still to go, how much more there is to learn. Maybe that’s enlightenment enough – to know that there is no final resting place of the mind, no moment of smug clarity. Perhaps wisdom, at least for me, means realizing how small I am, and unwise, and how far I have yet to go.”

Life Long Learner
Attending the Good Wine Gal sessions with Barb Wild, Mark Shipway, and special guests, gives me the opportunity to continue to learn about key grapes, flavours, geography, history and cuisine. Barb’s recommendations for wine and food pairings allow us to make a night of it. I really enjoy meeting others and hearing their tasting notes on selected wines for the evening. What connects us all is our collective love for wine.