Today we’d like to introduce you to Christie Smith.
Hi Christie, can you start by introducing yourself? We’d love to learn more about how you got to where you are today?
I grew up in Napa, so wine was always part of the landscape around me, but what really fascinated me was the art and science behind it. You can take the same vineyard, the same fruit, even the same vintage, and change one decision: the kind of oak used, fermentation style, aging vessel, or malolactic fermentation and suddenly the wine tells a completely different story. That tension between precision and magic is what pulled me in.
Years later, while I was living in Boston and working at Wayfair, I became a sommelier for fun. At the time, I didn’t know it would end up becoming my full-time business, but I knew wine had become one of the things I could talk about endlessly. Shortly after, Amazon offered me a role, which brought me back to the West Coast, and after a few years on that team, I moved into managing the wine category for Amazon’s grocery stores and moved to New York City.
That chapter gave me a front-row seat to the mass-market wine world, but it also helped me see what I felt was missing. I was attending business dinners and watching people order wine with uncertainty, or treat it as an afterthought, when it could have been one of the most memorable parts of the evening. I realized there was an opportunity to make wine feel more exciting, more intentional, and more useful in the way people connect.
That became the beginning of my business, Uncorked with Christie. At first, I was hosting wine classes and helping people understand how to pair food and wine in a way that felt practical and fun. But after two years in the broader wine world, I wanted to build something more personal and more elevated, something connected to the Napa I knew intimately.
Because I grew up there, I had personal relationships with winemakers and producers that most people would never find through a retail shelf. Many of these wineries are exclusive and highly allocated, not available in stores, not sold online, and often require waitlists or direct introductions. Some are tucked just beside the famous names everyone talks about, producing wines of the same caliber, but with far less visibility. That became the real opportunity: helping people access the kind of Napa wines and experiences that are usually reserved for insiders.
Today, my business Uncorked with Christie sits at the intersection of wine, access, and luxury hospitality. I’m both a sommelier and luxury wine concierge, curating private tastings, sourcing elusive and exclusive, allocation-only bottles, helping clients build their collections, and designing wine experiences that make entertaining feel more thoughtful and memorable. A growing part of my work is helping relationship-driven clients, from VC firms and family offices to fund managers and Investor Relations teams to Art Dealers and Yacht Brokers elevate the way they host. Instead of another standard business dinner, I create private wine salons that help them build rooms with the right people, deepen relationships, and use the experience as a more intentional relationship tool. My work now takes me primarily between Napa, New York City, and South Florida, creating private experiences for clients who want something more personal, strategic, and difficult to replicate.
At its core, my business is built on the idea that fantastic wine is not just about what is in the glass. It is about access, storytelling, provenance, history and the way the right bottle can completely change the energy of a room.
We all face challenges, but looking back would you describe it as a relatively smooth road?
It definitely hasn’t been a totally smooth road, but I also think that is part of being an entrepreneur. You really don’t know what you don’t know in the beginning, and a lot of people will give you advice, sometimes with the best intentions, but they’re usually not entrepreneurs themselves, or they are not building the kind of business you are building.
For me, one of the biggest lessons was learning to trust my own instincts. Early on, I think I was trying to put myself into too many buckets because I wanted to get as many clients as possible. I was trying to make the business fit a lot of different people, but what ended up happening was that I was spreading myself too thin and, honestly, not always targeting the right clients. I think one of the biggest struggles was getting comfortable with the fact that narrowing my focus was not limiting the business, it was actually making it stronger. The more I leaned into what makes Uncorked with Christie different, the clearer everything became.
Once I realized that, things started to shift. My business isn’t for everyone, and that is actually the point. What I do is very specific, it’s luxury, it’s relationship-driven, and it is built around access that most people can’t get on their own. So the right clients are the ones who understand that value and want something exclusive and unique.
Thanks – so what else should our readers know about Uncorked with Christie?
Uncorked with Christie is my luxury wine concierge and private wine salon business, but what I do is really about access. I help clients experience Napa in a way most people cannot access on their own.
I grew up in Napa, so this is not a world I discovered from the outside. A lot of the producers I work with are people I grew up around, know personally, or have built real relationships with over the years. These are not just wines I found on a list. Many of them are highly allocated, not sold online, not available in retail, and often require waitlists, direct relationships, or knowing the right person.
That is what makes my work different from a typical sommelier experience. A sommelier can help you choose a great bottle of wine, but what I provide goes beyond that. I am bringing people into the more insider side of Napa, the small-production wineries, the collector-level bottles, the producers that are next door to the famous names everyone talks about but are still under the radar, on purpose. It’s a very “if you know, you know” world, and because I’m from there, I can help clients access it in a way that feels personal and real.
I work with private clients who want to build their collections, source exclusive, allocation-only bottles, or host private tastings at their estate or on their yacht. I also work with relationship-driven businesses like VC firms, family offices, fund managers, yacht brokers, art dealers, and other high-touch industries that want to entertain clients, investors, founders, or partners in a more thoughtful way. Instead of another standard business dinner, I create private wine salons that help people build rooms with the right guests, deepen relationships, and use wine as a more intentional relationship tool.
What sets Uncorked with Christie apart is that it’s not just about expensive wine. Expensive wine isn’t hard to find if you have the budget. The real difference is knowing what is actually special, who made it, why it matters, and how to create an experience around it that does not feel generic or performative. I like to create experiences that compare AVAs, appellations, producers, and vintages side by side, so clients leave with a real point of reference, almost like a personal map of Napa. A single winery can only show you its own property, and most sommeliers do not have access to the producers I do. Because of my relationships, I can compare wines across Napa in a way that is much more dynamic: several producers on Howell Mountain or Mt. Veeder vs Rutherford, or different producers and vintages side by side, so clients can actually understand how place, style, and winemaking decisions show up in the glass.
I love that my brand feels like an extension of me. It is personal, rooted in my story, and connected to the relationships, taste, and the way I see wine. I’m not trying to be a traditional wine educator or a generic luxury event producer. I’m building something that connects people to a version of Napa that feels more intimate, more exclusive, and much harder to replicate.
Uncorked with Christie is for people who want more than a wine tasting. It’s for people who value access, provenance, storytelling, and creating experiences that people actually remember. Whether I’m helping someone build a cellar or creating a private salon for investors, founders, collectors, or clients, the goal is always the same: to make wine feel like the most memorable and meaningful part of the room.
Is there any advice you’d like to share with our readers who might just be starting out?
My biggest advice is to do the research upfront, but don’t stay stuck in research mode forever. Understand your market, your pricing, who your ideal client is, and where your offer actually fits. But from there, you have to get in front of the people who would realistically buy what you are selling and have real conversations with them.
Ask them why they would buy it, what problem it solves for them, what they think makes it different, and why they would consider it valuable. Sometimes the way you think about your business and the way your ideal client thinks about it aren’t exactly the same, and those conversations can give you a lot of clarity.
I also think it’s really important to figure out what your niche is and what makes it unique to you. Not just what is trendy or what other people are doing, but what you can genuinely own. For me, that was realizing that I’m a young woman from Napa who can make wine feel elevated, but not boring. I don’t just teach people about wine from a textbook perspective. I have real stories, relationships, and anecdotes from growing up there, and that makes the experience feel more exciting and personal.
I wish I had understood earlier that being specific is not a weakness. It’s actually what makes people remember you. When you try to be everything to everyone, it gets confusing. When you are really clear on what you do, who it’s for, and why you’re different, the right people can understand your value much faster.
Pricing:
- I price based on an annual retainer or custom event quotes
Contact Info:
- Website: https://uncorkedwithchristie.com
- Instagram: uncorkedwithchristie
- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/christie-smith-a181bb83
- Other: Email: uncorkedwithchristie@gmail.com
