Our Sommeliers
By the time Nate Norfolk turned thirty, he had worked more than ten years in the wine industry. Beginning as the buyer and manager for a wine shop on Milwaukee’s east side, he’s given appraisals, organized cellars, managed and trained staff, taught wine classes, and helped thousands of people find the right bottle for the occasion.
Having been in the wholesale, retail, and restaurant side of the business, his background helps him to serve, educate, and organize events. He’s put on wine tastings and dinners at clubs and private homes for intimate groups, and organized large scale tastings of 100 plus wines with close to 1000 attendees.
In 2006, Nate passed the introductory course for the Court of Master Sommeliers with the highest score of anyone in his class at the Culinary Institute of America. In March 2008 Nate became a Certified Sommelier.
Toni's passion for excellent food and wine developed while living on both coasts (New York and Los Angeles) supporting her thriving acting career working as a waitress. During the 1990's she moved back to the west coast, after living in New York, igniting her career in the wine industry working as the buyer for a group of revolutionary wine shops in Portland, Oregon
A few years later, she moved further north, to Seattle, and worked in restaurant management. There she oversaw some of the top lists in the city, most of them specializing in the excellent wines of the Pacific Northwest.
In 1998, Toni moved to Wisconsin and became the Wine Director for one of Milwaukee's top restaurant destinations. During this time, she began to test with the Court of Master Sommeliers and passed the first level in 2004. The Court of Master Sommeliers is an internationally respected testing organization that has less than 180 members worldwide, 85 members in the United States and only 15 of those members are women.
In 2007, she passed the third level, achieving the advanced certification with the Court and became the first and only person in Wisconsin to have achieved that level of certification with any wine testing organization. She plans to sit the exam to become a Master Sommelier in 2009.
