Last year, the Wasatch County resident and ski-school supervisor at Deer Valley became a Certified Wine Sommelier after attending the International Wine Guild School in Denver, Colo.
She is also a professor at the Fox School of Wine and works with some wine cellars here in Park City.
"Wine is an ever-evolving culture," she said during an interview with The Park Record. "It's an art form and a continuing form of education. The more you know, the more you realized you don't know. I found if you study wine and culture, you can learn about the history of the world."
Earlier this year, Wood decided to add another project to her wine-appreciation list and formed the Park City Wine Club.
The club will host its first meeting at the Crescent Room of the Park City Hotel on Monday, Aug. 27, at 6 p.m. The event, which will feature tastings and hors d'oeuvres from the Ruth's Chris menu, is free for club members and $10 for their invited guests.
Membership fees are $25 for the first year and $15 for a renewal.
The night will serve as an icebreaker of sorts, Wood said.
"It will be a time for members to acquaint themselves with one another and promote the club," she explained. "We'll let people know what is next on the agenda."
The club will also donate money to Park City area nonprofit organizations.
"Since I was asking for membership fees, I felt the club needed to give something back to the community," Wood said. "So, the proceeds we raise in membership fees and admission will be given back to these organizations in Park City."
Friends of Animals Utah will be given the first check during Monday's event.
"I love animals, so they were first choice," she said. "Ten percent of the membership fees will benefit them."
The idea for the wine club came to Wood one day while she was in the shower.
"It was one of those things," she said. "I went online and, believe it or not, found there is a Cedar City Wine Club, a Timpanogos Wine Club and a Utah Wine Club, which is more like a group that meets at various restaurants."
After talking with Kirsten Fox from the Fox School of Wine, Wood began making an outline of what she wanted her own organization to do.
"Being from California, I used to belong to a lot of wine clubs," Wood said. "While I can't really model a club in Utah after one of those, which are usually named for and represent one winery, I decided that my goal would be about representing wine in general."
The Park City Wine Club schedule will consist of one meeting per month for 10 months.
"We won't be selling wine, but serving tastes of wine at our meetings, which will be held at various establishments who have liquor permits," Wood said. "During these meetings, the club will socialize, learn about wines and about food and wine pairings.
"Whatever restaurants are hosting one of our events, we will showcase wines from their wine list," she said. "That way, people will get a chance to taste something they may not have ordered before."
Wood began working closely with the Utah Department of Alcoholic Beverage Control Commission six months ago to make sure her club was established legally.
Since the club wasn't going to sell wine, it needed to be set up as a membership-based organization, she said.
"It couldn't just be open to the general public because of the state's liquor laws," Wood said. "So, the club is open to members and their invited guests.
"So, if anyone asks, I would need to show a roster of the club's memberships and who the guests are," she said.
So far, Wood has recruited 36 members from around the country including Palm Beach, Calif., West Port, Mass., Las Vegas, Nev., and Utah.
"Should I get enough members in the club within a 12-month period of time, there is the potential to place special orders for wine through a distributor to wine-club members," Wood said. "Also, the wine club will also start embarking on small group trips with 10 to 12 people next summer for visits to Napa Valley and Paso Robles in California and then to Grand Junction, Colo. We'll visit places where people can't go to alone or in large groups, and that's exciting as well."
The Park City Wine Club will hold its first meeting on Monday, Aug. 27, at the Crescent Room in the Park City Hotel, at 6 p.m. The event is free for members and $10 for their invited guests. For membership information, visit www.parkcitywineclub.com or email Pamela@parkcitywineclub.com .
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