Today we’d like to introduce you to Daniela DaSuta.
Hi Daniela, can you start by introducing yourself? We’d love to learn more about how you got to where you are today?
I was 15 when my mother moved our family to Texas to start a winery outside the Hill Country. I spent my teenage years alongside a large crew planting grapes, managing vines, and helping with winemaking after harvest. At the time, I had no idea that wine would eventually become my career. Honestly, I was mostly just excited about the paycheck.
In college, I worked in restaurants and eventually made my way to a fine-dining restaurant in downtown Austin. When I mentioned that my family had a winery, my coworkers assumed I knew everything about wine—the regions, styles, and nuances of tasting. The funny thing was, I didn’t. I had grown up around wine, but I had never actually taken a wine course.
After graduation, my mother suggested I come back and work for her as Director of Wine Sales. When I accepted, she signed me up for my first WSET class, the Level 1 Award in Wines. That eight-hour class was a turning point. I was fascinated, and the day absolutely flew by. I suddenly realized there was this enormous, complex world behind something I had been around for years without really understanding.
Over the next five years, while working for my family’s winery, I completed WSET Levels 2 and 3 and eventually the WSET Diploma. I also began teaching WSET courses, which made me realize that I loved not only learning about wine, but helping other people understand it.
After completing my Diploma, I intentionally explored as many sides of the wine industry as I could—from PR and social media marketing for wineries to wine retail and education. My final role before starting my own company was with a Burgundian château, selling wines directly to consumers. I hosted multi-course dinners and tastings for private clients, and that experience gave me a strong foundation in luxury sales, hospitality, and creating memorable experiences around wine.
When that contract ended, I realized I didn’t want to choose just one part of the industry. I wanted to create something that brought all of those experiences together. So I decided the time was ripe to start my own business.
I leased a space in Austin and founded Somm Space, a dedicated wine education and events space. What started as a career I stumbled into has become a business built around the things I love most about wine: learning, hospitality, bringing people together, and helping them feel more confident and curious about what’s in their glass.
Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way. Looking back would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
It definitely hasn’t been a smooth road. My mother is an entrepreneur, and she has always valued freedom above almost everything else. I inherited that instinct, but freedom comes with a certain amount of uncertainty.
Because I’ve gravitated toward contract and entrepreneurial roles rather than traditional W-2 positions, I’ve found myself unemployed three times. Every time, it was terrifying. You inevitably start questioning yourself: Should I have just taken the stable job? Am I making the right choices?
And yet, every time, I ultimately chose freedom over security. The biggest leap came when I started Somm Space with no investors and an 11-month-old son. It was probably not the most conventional time to start a business, but I knew I wanted to build something of my own. Within 3 months, the business was cash flowing, and I knew my gut instinct had paid off.
Entrepreneurship has certainly come with plenty of stress, risk, and moments of self-doubt. But it has also given me something I value enormously: the ability to build my life and my work on my own terms. I now have the kind of freedom that I once watched my mother have and thought was almost impossible to achieve.
Great, so let’s talk business. Can you tell our readers more about what you do and what you think sets you apart from others?
Somm Space is a dedicated wine education and events space in Austin. We offer everything from WSET wine certification courses and 90-minute wine education classes to private events, tastings, and trade seminars.
One of the reasons I started Somm Space was because Austin didn’t have a dedicated space where people could come specifically to learn about wine. There are plenty of great restaurants, wine shops, and wineries in the area, but I wanted to create a place where wine education was the focus.
What I think makes Somm Space unique is our ability to meet people wherever they are in their wine journey. We have students who are completely new to wine sitting alongside people who have been studying and working in the industry for years. Being able to speak to both audiences without making either feel out of place—is something I’m particularly proud of.
Wine can sometimes feel like a world with a lot of rules and insider language, and I want Somm Space to break down those barriers. Whether someone is taking their very first wine class or preparing for a professional certification exam, they should feel comfortable asking questions, challenging their own palate, and being curious.
Ultimately, I want Somm Space to be a place where everyone, from the complete novice to the seasoned wine professional, feels like they belong.
What were you like growing up?
I was a very studious kid—definitely a straight-A student—and I’ve always loved learning, particularly languages. Spanish was my major in college, and for a long time I thought I would become a Spanish teacher. In high school, I actually taught Spanish and English at a local library, so education has been a part of my life for much longer than wine has.
Personality-wise, I was (and still am!) very opinionated. I’ve never been particularly interested in conforming just for the sake of fitting in. I didn’t love clubs, exclusivity, or environments where there was an obvious “in” crowd and “out” crowd.
My dad was in the Air Force, so we moved every two or three years, and sometimes I changed schools even more frequently than that. As a kid, I became pretty cautious about making friends because there was always this underlying feeling that I was eventually going to have to leave them.
That’s one of the reasons the community I’ve built at Somm Space feels particularly meaningful to me. In some ways, I’m creating the community I didn’t really have growing up—a place where people from completely different backgrounds and levels of experience can come together, feel welcome, and solidify lasting relationships.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.sommspaceatx.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/sommspace/
- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/somm-space
