We recently connected with Annie Edgerton and have shared our conversation below.

Hi Annie, thanks for joining us today. Can you recount a story of an unexpected problem you’ve faced along the way?

We frequently deal with insurance claims that have potentially affected a client’s wine/spirits collection. Commonly this is heat-related, for example, the cooling unit quit while the owner was away for three weeks during a Texas summer heat wave. So we inspect and taste the wine for damage — and we have a great deal of experience evaluating wine for this purpose.
One unexpected issue happened with a client whose basement was infested with skunks! A whole family of skunks had moved in and they had a tough time getting them out. The odor was incredible, it permeated the whole house (and we had arrived after remediation had been going on for a while.) The insurance company wanted to know – was the wine affected? We tasted a few bottles, and they didn’t necessarily taste like “skunk,” but eventually we concluded that the wines were at risk of presenting poorly in the future. You see, any bottle stoppered with a cork (and even some screw caps) allows for minute oxygen ingress – that’s part of how a wine is built for aging. So we reasoned that it was possible some odor molecules might have entered in the bottles… and there was no way of telling how that odor might compound over time, given the complex interactions of all of the components of wine as it ages.
Certainly the oddest insurance issue I’ve ever experienced!

Annie, love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?

I have been a professional performer since age 12 and a wine professional nearly as long – I started working in the wine biz before I was legally able to drink! In the late 1980s, my father wanted to check on what his wine collection was worth, and discovered there was no single place to go for that information. So he created a database of auction prices, and that led him into appraising (as comparable sales are necessary for any kind of appraisals.) When I was still in college, he taught me how to do the valuations, and I used that work as a day job while I pursued performing. To this day, I still do both careers equally.

As I learned more about wine, I started teaching classes and pursuing my own accreditations. I trademarked a persona, Wine Minx®, even before I knew how I wanted to use it.

Today, I have taken over the family business and formed Edgerton Wine Appraisals LLC, and I am looking to build on what my father created. But it is difficult to scale, as people don’t know they need us until they need us, and doing this kind of work requires a great deal of experience and knowledge.

I also am working at blending my performing background with my savvy-not-stuffy wine knowledge to appear on TV, though that has its own hurdles. And I just finished writing a creative intro-to-wine book, and I’m in the middle of creating a cabaret that is also a wine class, “Cabaret Sauvignon.”

In the wine biz, there are very few dedicated appraisers… and in the appraisal world, very few wine/spirits specialists. So I always love it when I can be there for a client and solve their problems! And I love teaching so much – from newbie consumers to fellow members of the trade. If I can help connect the dots and encourage adventurous drinking, I’m thrilled.

Let’s talk about resilience next – do you have a story you can share with us?

I finished my WSET (Wine & Spirit Education Trust) Diploma in 2019 after two years of study and exams. It was, until that point, one of the hardest things I’d attempted, and I was beyond ready to be done studying. But it nagged at me that there was only one higher designation left to pursue, so I applied for the Institute of Masters of Wine in 2020 and was one of the lucky few accepted. MW is a self-study program, so I thought it was a perfect pastime during the pandemic. But in spite of their best efforts, I don’t feel the IMW was able to convey the high bar one needs to meet from all the videos and wine samples that year, and while I felt I was improving steadily, I did not pass my first (Stage 1) exam. (Actually, none of my original study-buddies did, which at least made me feel in good company!) So, I was a re-sit, having to repeat Stage 1 in 2021.

Well, they finally had a delayed in-person Seminar that March, my first in-person event since beginning, and it was eye-opening. Being able to talk to MWs, meet other students from around the world and hear their arguments and opinions – I realized that in spite of my progress, I was VERY far from where I needed to be. So, I redoubled my efforts, but with only a few months before my 2nd attempt, was not confident. After the exam, I truly felt it could go either way. I might have squeaked into Stage 2… or I might have failed again, and in that instance I’d be let go from the program and it would be two years before I’d be able to re-apply and start all over again.

In October, when the results came in, I was not successful and I was released. I felt so devastated, and literally went through all the stages of grief – anger that the IMW hadn’t provided better support during the pandemic, denial that I had failed, bargaining (I requested only one year off before reapplying and was turned down,) all of it.

I had been a wine professional for nearly thirty years. I am a smart cookie. I worked my tail off for two years. How could I have failed? It sent me into a depressive period for around five months, as I replayed all of my efforts. I struggled with my self worth — was my whole career a lie? A lot of folks in the industry knew I’d been in the program, so I had to repeat my “failure” story over and over again. It was brutal.

But eventually the fog lifted a little, and I realized that I had learned so much in MW – it was a way of connecting the dots I had not been immersed in before. I was a better taster. I was a better educator. So, I kept meeting with my tasting group. I kept refining my notes and reading and doing research and talking to winemakers.

In May of 2024, after my two years away, I re-applied, and was re-accepted (I should have hoped so!) and I am currently preparing for my (re-)Stage 1 exam in June. And last month I went again to Seminar — but this time, it was different. This time, I was one of the students volunteering answers from practice exams. This time, I was refining my knowledge, not being shocked at what I didn’t know. This time I started to feel confidence. Oh, I know I have a lot of work to do! But this time I know EXACTLY where the bar is, and this time I feel like I can get there.

At the final dinner, an MW singled me out to tell me: he saw me as an MW. He believes I will be successful. He expects to toast me in Vintner’s Hall when I earn the designation. I was truly taken aback and it was the last push of a very big tipping point.

You see, this program is very hard. Only around 8-10 percent of students ever achieve the designation. Being out of the program actually took away a big obstacle – the fear of failure. I’ve already failed!

But my determination and resilience is paying off. I see myself at the finish line (though I don’t expect this will be easy, it may take many more years.) And even if I’m not successful, it will have been worth it.

How’d you build such a strong reputation within your market?

It was hard to choose another question – my business is so different from many small businesses, things that apply to most don’t apply to us. Sometimes clients are individual collectors, sometimes they’re insurance companies. Individuals rarely return to us again and again (though occasionally they do, and that’s fantastic.)

So, ironically, our reputation really came from the fact that we simply exist! There are very few accredited wine/spirit appraisers out there. The goal now is to broaden our reach. Now that I’ve taken over the business from my father, I am trying to figure out how to bring the buisness even more into the modern era. Social media may not get us in front of the right people. An “Antiques Roadshow”-style TV show was interested in us, but I had to tell them that even if we found old, valuable wine in someone’s attic, it would almost certainly not have been stored properly so would be bad!

So, now the question is – how to keep growing our reputation.

Contact Info:

• Website: edgertonwineappraisals.com & wineminxannie.com
• Instagram: @wineminxannie
• Facebook: Edgerton Wine Appraisals / Wine Minx
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/annieedgerton/
• Youtube: @wineminx