Liz Dowty

In 2005, Liz Dowty Mitchell began her full-time career in the hospitality industry with the Ralph Brennan Restaurant Group first in New Orleans at BACCO and then in California at Ralph Brennan’s Jazz Kitchen.  From there, she fostered her burgeoning interest in wine at The Wine Club Santa Ana beginning with stocking shelves to becoming the lead wine buyer for the store.  After 3 ½ years in California, back home (NOLA) was calling, but she stopped in Houston, TX on the way, and worked at Republic National Distributing Company as a Key Account Manager on the On-Premise team for a year.  In August 2010, she returned home to New Orleans to grow the newly established wine distributor, Vino Wholesale, as the portfolio manager which kept her busy for 4 ½ years.  In July 2015, she was offered a dream opportunity to be a sales manager for the importer, Eric Solomon/ European Cellars’ portfolio- one of the most respected portfolios of Spanish and southern French wine in the country, which continues to keep her very busy to this day.  Throughout her professional jobs, she has remained active in the sommelier community, completing all 3 portions of the Master Sommelier Diploma over the years with the intent of passing the tasting portion once again this year to finally achieve this distinction.  In New Orleans, she has also worked at Stella restaurant, was the opening Beverage Director and sommelier for Dominique’s as well as Square Root in New Orleans curating the wine list and beverage service.  She has also competed in and won various national sommelier competitions over the years as well as been a judge, speaker and participant in many of the premier wine festivals throughout the country.