1. To supplement an occasion where friends, clients and/or colleagues get together and have fun.
2. To provide wine education to those who appreciate wine and want to learn more about it.
3. To provide a recommendations about great value wines which can be found in local shops and restaurants.
4. To recommend foods that complement the flavors of the selected wines.

The idea for WineSpeak originated from founder Sarah Nelson’s passion for wine, food and education. Growing up, Sarah, a Milwaukee native, was exposed to the finer details of wines and food preparation through her parents: her father is a wine aficionado and her mother received chef training at Le Cordon Bleu in Paris and later became a food stylist.

Sarah finished her MBA from UW-Milwaukee in 2000, but it wasn’t until she spent three years in Madrid that she became convinced that she wanted to make a career in wine. While there, as an English teacher on a limited budget, she discovered that you don’t have to spend a fortune to buy great wines. She also fell in love with teaching.

Upon returning to the States, Sarah got a job in a wine shop and sought out as much information about wine studies as she could get her hands on—wine tasting, wine buying and wine-and-food  pairing. Her experiences finally inspired her to become a Certified Specialist of Wine, through the prestigious Society of Wine Educators  and later a sales representative for a local wine distributor.

Finally, Sarah put the pieces together—wine, food, education and business—and formed WineSpeak.