Wine has a reputation for being fussy. But one doesn’t need to be a sommelier to enjoy a glass, says Eberhard Tamm of Enotri Wine Marketing. Through his work, he invites consumers to trust their own palates, not apps or “self-appointed wine popes” decreeing what is good or bad.
“At the end of the tasting all I want to hear is, ‘I like this wine or I don’t like this.’ Wine doesn’t want to be analyzed to death,” he says. “It wants to be enjoyed.”
While he’s practical about drinking wine, he can be romantic when discussing the industry he loves.
“There is no other beverage that is closer to human life than wine,” he says. And he reflects this belief in his company’s philosophy of “roots matter,” which applies to where and when his grapes grow, and the “roots” of the wineries he buys from: family-owned businesses where children play in the vineyards and parents pass knowledge down over generations.
His passion for the industry took root in Germany, where he worked for his father’s company, whose distribution work included some wineries. His family relocated to Canada, and he worked in banking after high school, but his interest in wine never waned.
He left banking after a few years, and returned to Germany for a winery internship that taught him all aspects of the industry. Over the years, he’s travelled to every major wine region in the world, building relationships and working on all sides of the industry.
Since founding Enotri in 2012, Tamm has refused to follow trends, like the current vogue for natural and orange wines — of which he’s not a big fan. Tamm mainly buys the wine he likes to drink from vineyards with which he’s built relationships over his four-plus decades in the industry. He curates the wine to what he believes is meaningful to the Alberta market — not just what’s flying off the shelves at the moment.
“You buy these wines because it’s the talk of the town right now and then you taste it and you don’t like it,” he says. His approach is based in storytelling and helping consumers discover new favourites they can return to again and again.
When sourcing a pinot grigio, for example, Eberhard wanted to bring in a ramato, a copper-hued pinot grigio that was unfamiliar to most North Americans. Industrial producers of pinot grigio remove the colour from their wines, stripping away some of its complexity. Eberhard was one of the first to bring a ramato to Alberta — two years later, it caught on, becoming a real segment of the Alberta market. Today, you’ll find a handful of different ramatos on shelves across the province.
“You cannot be everything to everybody,” he says. “I have my set of criteria under which I select my portfolio and there are no compromises.”
Despite changing cultural and economic conditions that have put the squeeze on the industry, Eberhard describes himself as a bon vivant — despite the challenges, he can always return to the sociable joy of wine.
One way he does that is through his second company, Carpe Vitae, which partners with chefs to deliver curated events in Edmonton and Calgary, bringing together strangers and acquaintances to enjoy good food paired with good wine.
“Usually it only takes until the second round comes around when you have that lively conversation,” he says. “Wine is a beverage that breaks down barriers.”
So even as restaurants close their doors and consumers pinch pennies, he remains committed.
“We’re not giving up. We just have to change some things and keep at it.”
This article appears in the April 2025 issue of Edify
