Sommsation’s presence in Park City, most notably during the Sundance Film Festival, is a consequence of its CEO Danielle Diliberti’s own connections.
“My family has had a cabin here (in Park City) that dates back to the Olympics. So my family first started coming kind of on an annual basis,” she said. “I grew up in Michigan, so of course better skiing, but kind of a Michigan vibe. So we’ve been coming here for years.”
Before starting Sommsation, Diliberti spent time at an investment company that worked closely with A24, so the Sundance connection came naturally, too.
The brand is a platform designed to amplify independent wineries and curators for wine consumers, Diliberti said.
“In the U.S. there’s about 11,000 wineries. 8,000 of them are small, independent wineries that don’t have any kind of distribution,” she said. “it just intersects so well with the film festival and everything that the independent film world is seeking here, which is, you come here to discover new films and to support up-and-coming talent. … It’s really about telling the creator story, and our platform was designed to do that.”
Their website, sommsation.com, is one way they’ve digitized an industry that began in the 1600s, Diliberti said, where they showcase their winery partners on an online wine shop and through rotating promotions, as well as a concierge service with a chat feature to talk directly with expert sommeliers.
Hugo Arias Sanchez is one of two full-time sommeliers who oversees the Sommsation network of now 71 sommeliers. Originally from Argentina with family roots in Spain, Sanchez has been a sommelier for almost two decades and connected with Sommsation after realizing the intimate relationships they maintain with wineries.
“It’s not just like this big corporation where they just see numbers. We actually talk to these people. I’ve been to the wineries. I’ve helped do harvest with them,” Sanchez said.
He described Sommsation like the parking lot of a farmers market.
“Every single winery has their own stand. Everyone comes to us. They purchase whatever they need,” he said. “We make the wineries look good, we promote their brands, we bring the knowledge of the wines to other people. And that’s it.”
Education is a key component for the brand, he said, especially in the United States where ripple effects from Prohibition still impact attitudes around wine.
“Wine is not supposed to be complicated. It’s supposed to be easy, approachable. But for some reason, and this is the European in me — wine is just the thing that we drink every day. Here, it’s like, this fancy, scary stuff,” he said.
Diliberti said that they saw wine as something highly curated but almost inaccessible for consumers who needed a bit more education.
“Wine is one of those things like, the more you know, the less you know. And so being able to constantly engage at the pace by which any individual wants to is really what our lifestyle is about,” she said.
It’s something that seems complex but should be simple, Sanchez reiterated. Like what wine or food-and-wine pairing is best? The one that tastes best to the individual, he said. So a bit of education can help loosen concerns or roadblocks people in the U.S. might experience when delving into the world of wine.
“I would say 90% of people that I meet in tastings, they will always ask me, which one is your favorite wine? And I’m like, Do you have kids? Do you have a favorite kid?” he said. “It’s not that one is better than the other one, it’s that wines serve different purposes. That grenache blanc is great to drink by itself. And this (red wine) is bigger, it needs food. So for example, (the grenache blanc) is something that I will open when I’m cooking. This (red) is something to have my meal with. Why do we have to have the same wine throughout the whole thing?”
Diliberti said Sommsation is also a lifestyle brand that tries to meet their customers at their values, like sustainability.
“If you think about wine, it’s about food and wine, and then when you think about food and wine, it’s about the people that you’re with. And so that’s really where the lifestyle piece comes into play,” she said. “80% of our winery partners are sustainable. So it’s about supporting the land and thinking about the longevity of the industry as a whole.”
Diliberti said with the market in Utah, they still need to go through state liquor stores, but that they’re often open to bringing in new wines requested by consumers.
In the future, she said they may expand into similar markets like distilleries, craft breweries or even cannabis, teas and herbs.
To learn more about the brand, visit sommsation.com.