Wine subscription service Bright Cellars has hired its first master sommelier as it looks to scale the Milwaukee-based brand.
Its new sommelier is Catherine Fallis, the fifth woman in the world to earn the master sommelier designation, according to a Wednesday announcement.
Fallis will spearhead education and selection efforts for Bright Cellars, which blends and bottles its own wines. She will also develop content to help the company's subscribers learn about its wines and wine in general.
Fallis is located in San Francisco, according to her LinkedIn profile. Bright Cellars has a distribution center and production partner in the nearby Napa Valley region, Bright Cellars CEO Joe Megibow told Wisconsin Inno shortly after he joined the company in July.
Bright Cellars job reduction
Separately, Bright Cellars recently laid off some employees, Megibow confirmed in an email Friday.
"We are investing in and implementing new third-party technologies and platforms that, unfortunately, resulted in the elimination of certain redundant roles," Megibow said.
He declined to share the number of employees impacted. The company had nearly 100 employees across the country as of July.
Bright Cellars was founded in 2014 by co-founders Richard Yau and Joe Laurendi. Megibow replaced Yau as CEO in July and told Wisconsin Inno that Bright Cellars was not yet profitable. Its annual revenue at the time was around $40 million.
Megibow, an e-commerce industry veteran, said his goal was to help Bright Cellars scale and achieve profitability by acquiring customers that stick with the service.
