Bay Area Wine Society
About Us
We seek to encourage the appreciation of wine in all its many dimensions. Reds. Whites. Flights. Magnums. The goal here is to keep it informal and fun yet informative. Anyone can coordinate a program or suggest a place to gather, so please take advantage of our participatory approach. I'm sure there will be takers for almost every occasion.
We sponsor sit down blind tastings whose results are posted on our blog and walk around tastings, both featuring new releases from limited production California wineries. We also administer wine sales and facilitate fulfillment between the participating wineries and members.
The Society, a not-for-profit 501(c)7 "social club", was founded and continues to be administered by Tom Merle. A fifth generation San Franciscan whose relatives still make wine in the south of France, Tom received his B.A. in philosophy from Georgetown and a masters in humanities from the University of Chicago, with additional graduate work at Berkeley. Career 1.0 included governmental affairs and regional planning for the Bay Area Council, followed by managing and marketing master planned communities for Mobil Land Development Corp. then Chevron's equivalent. Career 2.0 veered off in another direction: Executive Director of Family Winemakers of CA, then organizing tours and tastings, business development for fulfillment companies, and convening wineries to exchange info on best social media practices. Tom has been holding tastings for alumni groups, museums, corporations and groups such as the California Historical Society and the Commonwealth Club for a dozen years.If you have any questions about our membership procedure or programs please send an email to: info@BayAreaWineSociety.org .
