EMILY HARMAN

Consultant Sommelier

Emily set up VinaLupa in 2015 in London and began working with restaurants and hotels in the city, by advising them on aspects relating to wine and providing training to food and beverage teams. Since then, the business has grown and expanded and now reaches across a number of countries and markets: U.K., Germany, and U.S.A. Emily co-owns an online wine shop and wine import business in Germany called Sublime Wine.

Emily has 18 years experience in the food and beverage industry, from working at legendary River Cafe to then spending several years in Australia working at the highly awarded fine dining restaurant Attica in Melbourne, which was voted no. 32 in the Worlds 50 Best Restaurants in spring 2014.

Upon her return to London she worked for Xavier Rousset at 28-50 and Texture before taking the role at The Zetter Group as the Group Wine Buyer & Sommelier. Emily ran the wine lists and wine training for the teams at Bistrot Bruno Loubet and The Zetter Townhouse and oversaw the opening of Grain Store in 2013. Following this, she set up and managed the initial Vault Tastings - a wine trade event promoting small interesting importers. 

Her curiosity and constant urge to learn more has led her to seek out work in vineyards and wineries. These include the 2011 vintage with artisan winemaker Tom Shobbrook in The Barossa Valley and then later that year to move to Tuscany to work with Sean O'Callaghan at Riecine in Gaiole in Chianti. In 2018, she spent a month in the visually stunning region of Sierra de Gredos (west of Madrid, Spain) working for Comando G. She designed and worked on the entire opening concept for Berlin based wine bar ORA in 2019 and opened the business as shareholder and managing director in spring 2020, she left the business in November 2021.

In Summer 2019, she set up an independent wine fair ‘Sommer Weinfest’ at The Michelberger Hotel in Berlin, which included 43 producers from across Europe and over 250 wines to taste. The second edition of it is planned for June 26th 2022, which has been co-organised with her business partner Arlene Stein. For tickets - click here.