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I recently read a theory that going for 50 coffees with people you've never met is the entrepreneurs equivalent to the theory that doing anything for 10,000 hours will make you an expert on it. While I get the idea, 50 coffees is far easier than practicing something for ten years, and while I'm far from lazy I've decided to set out on a fairly simple mission: over the next 50 weeks I'm going to invite 50 interesting Vancouverites, most of whom I have never met before, to go for coffee. I'm going to use this as an exercise in networking for myself and for V.I.A. while also using it as a platform to introduce you to some people who are doing really cool stuff in the city you live in. |
Meet Kurtis Kolt. Award winning sommelier, head of the Waldorf's monthly East Van Wine Academy, wine writer, wine judge, wine blogger, wine host... to boil it down (ferment it?) he's an independent wine consultant. An award-winning and much-respected independent wine consultant that doesn't have the air that you might expect from someone with such accolades: Kurtis is far from a snob and in fact I would argue that he's the opposite of one.
We sat down for coffee at Nelson the Seagull and for a brief moment I marvelled that our paths had not crossed in real life previous to our coffee, then it set in that the reason is that I'm a former alcoholic, 5 years sober, and I am automatically not attending most of the events I might run into him at including the amazing/aforementioned East Van Wine Academy that he puts on where the slant is "a wine event that doesn't suck".
I often have a hard time translating people's titles into what it is that they actually do on a day-to-day so we talked about that (learn all about his work HERE) and the conversation drifted to the subject of the Rio Theatre and of the city's antiquated liquor laws that I'm pretty sure everyone can agree need to be changed. Kurtis is a proponent for liquor license reform, and you can read his most recent piece about it HERE in WE Vancouver.
At the end of our coffee I had a light bulb moment where I invited him to do a monthly blog post on V.I.A. branded as his East Van Wine Academy, and he agreed that would be the perfect fit. Have a look at the first one HERE, then follow Kurtis on TWITTER and look forward to seeing a lot more of him here on our site!
