January 30, 2024 – While the actual Grand Opening for the brick-and-mortar piece of Lady Somm at the Barnyard in Carmel is set for March 21, Roxanne Langer and her sister, Tamara Carver, want to get on your calendar now: we know how quickly things fill up.
Lady Somm is the vision of these two Monterey area women who love sharing their knowledge of wine and the giant web it weaves, plus a few secrets they’ve learned along the way. Between them, they’ve traveled to 33 countries around the world on three continents, learning and teaching about wine.
Running wineries, holding seminars and putting on wine events gave them an appreciation for how visitors appreciate different ways of interacting with this beverage that holds so many fascinating stories.
Their soon-to-debut 1,700-square-foot tasting bar, lounge, wine shop and seminar/event space in The Barnyard in Carmel, above Carmel Valley Coffee Roasting, will be like no other wine business in the area. First, it boasts two separate spaces that provide opportunities for those who just want to buy a bottle of wine as well as those who want to further their wine education.
Secondly, one of Lady Somm’s primary endeavors is the Carmel Wine School, details of which can be found on ladysomm.com. The school plans to assist hospitality workers interested in increasing their wine knowledge or anyone who wants to achieve any wine education goal or have more fun drinking and exploring wine.
The newly renovated space is designed for maximum flexibility, and is well equipped for event rentals.
As you enter, you’ll see beautiful wooden cabinets from the Italian wine center in San Francisco. In back are spaces for private tastings. In the middle is a gleaming wine bar from Pasadera Country Club made of a 9-foot slab of hickory. With movable doors, stackable chairs and seating for up to 70, they plan to rent out the space for corporate meetings.
If you’re looking for a novel spot to hold an event, or need some help putting one together, these ladies can help, with a well-appointed facility and years of hands-on experience.
Lady Somm will also offer wine incentive travel, wine seminars, wine team building, food and wine pairing programs, wine receptions and dinners, along with wines from all over the world, local gems and wine merchandise.
This concept has been a lifetime in the making and they hope it will enrich the lives of wine lovers and hospitality professionals all over the Monterey Bay area. They hope to feature presentations by guest winemakers from some of their favorite wine regions.
Langer and Carver grew up in Fremont, but their family had a place at Lake Berryessa, so they were acquainted with the Napa wine scene from an early age. Langer says that while at college at The University of the Pacific, she worked at tasting rooms in Napa and Sonoma and actually wrote her Master’s thesis on wine. She then went to UC Davis for a viticulture and enology certificate, following that with WSET training and certifications through the American Sommelier Foundation.
Langer’s extensive wine career includes marketing and sales director for Rutherford Hill, and Executive Director for the Northwest Wine Coalition, representing the wineries of Oregon, Washington and Idaho in Europe and Asia. She was also the Marketing director for Napa Valley Vintners Association, then worked with Grgich Hills doing NorCal sales, while building her company, WineFUNdamentals, which eventually laid the groundwork for Lady Somm.
Carver is a licensed nurse practitioner who has worked in sports medicine and orthopedics, including on the physicians team for the San Francisco Giants and 49ers for 22 years. Even though she spent most of her time in the operating room and helping patients rehab, she always had a passion for wine, and assisted Roxanne in putting on events for WineFUNDamentals. While working as an assistant professor of nursing at UC San Francisco, she obtained her sommelier certification and started talking with her sister about growing a wine business together.
That led to the creation of Lady Somm.
Both Carver and Langer are members of Carmel Chamber of Commerce, Los Angeles Chaîne des Rôtisseurs, La Dames d’Escoffier International — Monterey Chapter, American Institute of Food and Wine, Women of The Vine and Spirits, Women in Wine, Monterey, and Monterey County Hospitality Association.
Join them as they embark on this next chapter of their wine journey.
Lady Somm | The Barnyard Shopping Village, Carmel | LadySomm.com
About the author
Laura Ness is a longtime wine journalist, columnist and judge who contributes regularly to Edible Monterey Bay, Spirited, WineOh.Tv, Los Gatos Magazine and Wine Industry Network, and a variety of consumer publications. Her passion is telling stories about the intriguing characters who inhabit the fascinating world of wine and food.
