Fred Dame is an American wine professional.
Fred Dame | |
|---|---|
| Born | 1952 or 1953 (age 70–71)[1] |
Dame was born in California and attended Washington and Lee University, earning a degree in journalism and communications.[2]
Dame in 1984 became a Master Sommelier, passing the exam in London before the United States had a court.[3] He was the first person to pass all three parts of the Master Sommelier examination on the first attempt, which is called "winning the Krug Cup".[4][2][5]
In 1986 he was co-founder of the Court of Master Sommeliers in the United States and was its first president.[3][1][6][7] He has been called "the godfather of the American sommelier community".[6][8] He appeared in the 2012 documentary about American sommelier candidates, SOMM.[9][10] In that documentary other Master Sommeliers described him as intimidating.[3]
In 2020, during the Me Too movement, Dame was accused by multiple female Master Sommeliers or former Master Sommelier candidates of sexual harassment and eventually expelled from the organization.[1][11][8][9]