SommCon DC made something clear right away: the way beverage programs are built and run is changing.
Across three days at the SommCon Conference & Beverage Expo in Washington, D.C., the same themes kept surfacing in conversations, sessions, and side chats between pours. Business performance is taking on a larger role. Data is shaping decisions in real time. And just as important, people are learning from each other openly, honestly, and without pretense.
Grounded in What the Industry Needs Right Now
This year’s programming didn’t sit at a distance from the industry; it met it exactly where it is.
Conversations moved quickly from big-picture ideas into real-world application. Margin pressure. Pricing decisions. Portfolio strategy. What’s working, what’s not, and how people are adapting.
The debut of the Profitability Bootcamp, sponsored by Coravin, reflected that. This is the kind of programming the industry is asking for, and in many cases, the reason they’re able to attend in the first place. Led by industry leaders like Brent Kroll and Mikayla Cohen, the sessions moved beyond theory into practical conversations tied directly to the day-to-day responsibilities of buyers and operators.
That emphasis on real-world application showed up across the program. In a session led by Greg Lambrecht, Founder and Inventor of Coravin, a live blind tasting compared freshly opened wines to those that had been preserved via Coravin. The room worked through assumptions in real time – tasting, questioning, and comparing notes as the results unfolded.
Colleen McClellan of Datassential opened the conference with a keynote that brought the data behind those decisions into sharp focus. Phones came out. Attendees were taking notes. There was a real sense of “this matters.” And one of the standout takeaways? Gen Z is drinking. Not only that, they’re skipping straight to the good stuff and showing a strong interest in premium wine.
Tasting Still Leads the Way
Rooms filled quickly. In more than one session, extra seats had to be pulled in to keep up. Presenters came in ready to share, and you could feel that energy translate. These weren’t passive rooms, attendees were leaning in, asking questions, and comparing notes.
Sessions led by Wines of Virginia, New York Wines, Cab Franc Forward, The SOMM Journal, and Kysela Pere et Fils brought that to life. There was a clear appetite not just to learn, but to taste, to understand, and to connect that knowledge back to real-world beverage program decisions.
That balance – between strategy and sensory experience – is still very much at the heart of SommCon.
Where Discovery and Connection Come Together
The Beverage Expo floor had a steady buzz – conversations mid-pour, bottles being revisited, attendees circling back for a second look.
Certain wines quickly became talking points. A 1986 Château Figeac Premier Grand Cru Classé from St. Émilion – part of a lineup curated by exhibitor Benchmark Wine Group – came up again and again, easily the bottle attendees were most excited about. Early Mountain’s Petit Manseng and a 2024 Sauvignon Blanc from The Vineyards at Dodon were also frequent standouts, often mentioned when asking attendees what they’d enjoyed most that day.
And the connection didn’t stop when the tasting ended. The Bubble Bar Welcome at District Champagne set the tone early, attendees arriving, reconnecting, and meeting for the first time. By the time SommChill at Maxwell Park rolled around, that energy had built into something else entirely. Music up, bottles being passed, conversations moving easily from one group to the next.
That same camaraderie carried across the conference, especially among our scholars. They weren’t on the sidelines. They were in conversations, asking questions, making introductions, and taking full advantage of the access around them. You could see relationships starting to form in real time.
And that’s really the point. Because when you step back, the room itself tells the story.
Operators, retailers, distributors, importers, hotels, and brands all brought different perspectives, but were part of the same conversation. Teams from across the industry were in the room, spanning restaurant groups, producers, distributors, and media. That mix is what makes SommCon what it is.
Beyond the Conference: Advocacy in Action
In D.C., those conversations extended beyond the conference itself. In collaboration with the U.S. Wine Trade Alliance (USWTA), a group of industry leaders – including Michelle Metter of SommCon, Colleen McClellan of Datassential, Erik Segelbaum of United Sommeliers Foundation, and Katie Blakely of Ridge Vineyards – traveled to Capitol Hill to meet with policymakers.
The focus was clear: sharing perspectives on the state of the wine industry and the ongoing impact of tariffs.
It was a natural extension of what had already been happening throughout the week, using collective insight and experience to help move the beverage industry forward.
A Community Taking Shape and Continuing in San Diego
“What we felt in D.C. was the beginning of something,”said Michelle Metter, Founder & Director of SommCon.“There’s a real sense of connection and shared purpose, like the early embers of a new region of our community starting to take shape.”
That’s exactly what it felt like. And it’s something we’re carrying forward.
SommCon Conference & Beverage Expo returns to San Diego November 3–5, 2026, building on the conversations, relationships, and momentum that started in D.C., and continuing to create space for the beverage industry to come together, learn, and move forward.