Today we’d like to introduce you to Phillip Patti.
Hi Phillip, thanks for sharing your story with us. To start, maybe you can tell our readers some of your backstory.
I was living in Chicago in the early 2000’s and, after finishing a Masters Degree in Music- Percussion Performance- I was not happy with gigs I was getting and how I was using my newly-minted skills. At that time, Chicago was a hotbed for culinary innovation, and the wine scene was extremely robust. One could taste a bunch of great wines at the many retailers, have a flight paired with carefully curated bites at a new restaurant, pop into one of the many cool wine bars and enjoy a vast selection of great wines, and have full meals at restaurants where they really cared about wine and food pairings, and had excellent wine lists. I asked for a job at my favorite store, and was soon off to the races.
After a few years, I was encouraged to make the jump into fine dining, and did so with an iconic Chicago restaurant, Spiaggia. I learned a ton in a short amount of time, but decided to leave Chicago for other opportunities.
I landed in McMinnville, Oregon with my wife, Molly Barth, and a three-month harvest internship at one of the Oregon’s pioneer wineries, Amity Vineyards as the anchor and new beginning. I also went back to school to study viticulture and some wine making, and began working in this new world. It was exciting, and the environment of the Pacific Northwest, and the Willamette Valley became a comfortable home. I tried to involve myself in all that surrounds wine, and did that over the course of 12 years in both McMinnville, and Eugene, Oregon. I opened, ran, and closed a wine bar in one year; sold wine from the distribution side for a few others, then jumped back into fine dining for 5 years as a sommelier and manager, all the while keeping my skills of wine making and grape growing sharp. This all coalesced when I began a serious course of study with the Wine and Spirits Education Trust (WSET). Over three years, I took 7 exams, studied thousands of hours, and tasted thousands of wines, wrote papers, and passed the Diploma in Wine and Spirits. I began teaching these course in Portland and around the Willamette Valley, and decided I wanted to dedicate more time to this. When the opportunity came up for a move to Nashville for the offer of a new job for my wife at Vanderbilt, we jumped on it. I set up Southeastern Beverage Education in 2018, and have been growing a small business since that time.
I’m sure it wasn’t obstacle-free, but would you say the journey has been fairly smooth so far?
No, owning your own business is never a smooth road- especially when a pandemic rips a hole right in the middle of your life. Before 2020, I needed to introduce myself to this new community of food and wine lovers. I have a different perspective on wine, spirits and beer than many people have. At times, it is a struggle to share this, especially in the environment of the new South. I have had to learn and adapt, but also push on the changes that I see necessary to place education around wine, spirits, beer and hospitality in front of conversation.
I have made some pivots, and incorporated other skills into my business. I love carpentry, and love to design and build wine cellars in people’s homes and businesses. When the teaching slows down, I can and build more of these. Likewise, there are few resources for collectors of wine here to help them grow and shape their collections. I jumped into this realm, and love dealing with wines from all over the world, and from decades past.
As you know, we’re big fans of Southeastern Beverage Education. For our readers who might not be as familiar what can you tell them about the brand?
Southeastern Beverage Education is a wine, spirits and beer educational organization which offers the best-in-class information and experiences so that your enjoyment of these drinks expands. This encompasses three pillars- educational and tasting opportunities, wine cellar building, and cellar management services. One can take classes and join tastings to broaden their knowledge of these fascinating beverages. The bulk of the classes come from the Wine and Spirits Education Trust curriculum, which is the premier drinks education organization in the world. One can learn in a single day-long class, taste carefully chosen samples, and take an exam to move through Level 1. This can be followed by multi-day offerings at Level 2, and the intense, professional-level course, Level 3, which includes a few months of study, a tasting and a written examination, all culminating in a broad understanding of the world of wine or spirits. We also offer week-night tastings both at our location, and at other places throughout the city.
To complement the class offerings, we design and build wine cellars of all sizes. If you want to build a wine cellar in your home or business, we have a unique design and building process, and up-to-date knowledge of the very specific requirements of this trade.
If you have more bottles then you know what to do with, or you are budding collector and want to methodically build your collection, we help with this through our cellar management services.
No one in the area brings to the drinks trade the knowledge, rigor and experience that we have and our love of sharing this with all.
Can you talk to us a bit about happiness and what makes you happy?
Talking to people about wine, spirits or beer, or, better, sharing a glass, and unpacking all that the liquid can reveal about where it comes from, how it is made, and what shaped its evolution to this point makes me happy. I also need to work with my hands and brain, so wood and metal work, and solving problems through careful thought, measurement and creativity is a contented zone in which I love to find myself. I love to travel, and to experience the things of that particular place that make it so special and unique. This is often through the lens of food and wine, and this quickly introduces you to the people and the environments where only this thing could be shaped.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.sebeved.com
- Instagram: sebeverageeducation
