Luxembourg

Deborah Van Dam

Deborah is a Taiwanese-American wine enthusiast, based in Luxembourg. Deborah does not work as a professional within the sector, but she is passionate about making wine fun and accessible to her fellow enthusiasts. Her journey in wine began after a family visit to a restaurant; in Deborah’s words, she was impressed when her “father had ordered a bottle of wine from what seemed like a dictionary-sized wine list.” She began to attend wine tastings and built winery visits into her travels abroad, but found that “without a structured approach to learning… nothing stuck”. With this in mind, she planned to take a sabbatical and dedicate all her time to studying wine, when one of her peers asked her “Why wait to take a sabbatical?” Upon reflection, Deborah agreed, and threw herself into WSET Courses. She faced some key hurdles to begin with - the lack of an approved programme provider in Luxembourg forced her to travel to Berlin for her studies, and then in March 2020 Covid-19 closed Schengen area borders to non-Europeans. These spanners having been thrown into the works, Deborah pressed on and at the end of 2021 she passed her WSET Level 3 with Distinction in Paris. She now eagerly looks forward to beginning her French Wine Scholar Programme next year.