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Amy Yancey

Certified Sommelier

Greenville, SC

20 Years of Restaurant Experience

Born and raised in Greenville, South Carolina, Amy began working in restaurants at 15. In her early twenties she moved to Chicago, where she worked for the Lettuce Entertain You restaurant group, studied wine, and became a Certified Sommelier. She returned home in 2019 to serve as Wine Director for Halls Chophouse Greenville.
Amy has an incurable and rare degenerative eye disease called Retinitis Pigmentosa that has slowly impaired her vision over time. After grappling with and accepting her vision loss, she launched her company, Pocket Somm, and ventured out on her own.
Pocket Somm is your personal sommelier at your fingertips, offering wine program consulting, personal wine procurement, and private wine education. Amy’s teaching style is fun, relaxed, and highly approachable. She is known for making wine feel easy to understand and genuinely exciting, no matter your level of experience.
Through Pocket Somm she runs a retail wine program inside the Greenville Beer Exchange. Amy focuses on farmers, not commercial wineries. She champions small production, artisan, boutique, and hard to find “unicorn” wines, and hosts private tastings both at Greenville Beer Exchange and in her clients’ homes.
Please reach out to book Amy for your next wine tasting or to start curating your own personalized wine collection.

Private Wine Tastings Wine Dinners Restaurant Beverage Program Consulting Personal Wine Procurement
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Professional Background

Bachelor of Arts (B.A.) in Political Science from University of South Carolina Upstate 2012
20 Years of Restaurant Experience
Certified Sommelier, Court of Master Sommeliers (CMS)
Level 3 Award in Wines, Wine & Spirits Education Trust (WSET)
Owner, Pocket Somm, 2023-Current
Wine Director, Greenville Beer Exchange, 2023-Current
Wine Director, Urban Wren, 2024
Wine Director, Halls Chophouse, 2019-2024
Lettuce Entertain You, 2012-2019

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Travels up to 50 miles from Greenville, SC

Fun Facts

Meet Amy Yancey

Where are you from?
Greenville, South Carolina
What's your favorite restaurant?
Locust in Nashville
What's your favorite thing to drink?
Grower champagne!
Why did you want to be a Sommelier?
I wanted to become a sommelier because food and wine have an incredible way of enhancing each other. Wine connects so many of my passions: history, geography, culture, economics — all poured into a single glass. It’s both an art and a science, and I love the way it tells the story of people and place.
If you're not in the retail shop - what are some of your hobbies & interests?
I’m a big music fan, everything from folk and classic rock to musical theater. If I’m not talking wine, I’m probably talking bands.
Why do you enjoy working for Elite Personal Chefs?
I truly believe in the EPC dream: building a worker-owned cooperative where everyone shares in the success. We’re stronger together as a network, and it’s inspiring to grow something built by chefs, for chefs. It’s rare to find a group of professionals this talented and passionate working toward a shared vision.
What do you love about the Private Sommelier Lifestyle?
I love the flexibility and independence of the private sommelier lifestyle. It’s incredibly rewarding to grow a small business built on trust and relationships. After years in the fast-paced restaurant world, it’s refreshing to slow down and focus on one family or group at a time, curating experiences that are truly personal.

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