Toast to success

SUNY Adirondack alumna and adjunct instructor Nato Bajelidze was recently accepted to the third-level certification in the Court Master Sommeliers program — a feat that required her to score among the top 200 sommeliers in the United States. At the end of the course, she will sit for the Advanced Sommelier Course & Examination. Once she passes, she is just one certification away from becoming a Master Sommelier, of which there are fewer than 300 in the world.

Nato’s wine journey started when she took a wine class as a student at SUNY Adirondack, but as a native of Georgia, wine is deep in her roots.

“We have 8,000 years of wine-making history,” she said. “I have been exposed to wine culture and making since I was a baby.”

Nato first came to the United States for a summer as a J1 student. She was assigned laundry duty at Surfside on the Lake in Lake George. A fateful twist — the laundry facility burning down with a month left in her stay — led her to be placed in the hotel’s kitchen. “I really loved it,” she said, explaining that she had always cooked at home.

Her hard work and natural abilities impressed Surfside’s chef, who invited Nato to live with he and his wife and attend culinary school in the States. She took the family up on their offer and enrolled at SUNY Adirondack.

“I was very lucky,” Nato said. “They hosted me for two years and helped me to be accepted here.”

In the years since, Nato graduated, married and worked as restaurant manager and sommelier at Inn at Erlowest. Her wine studies have led her to locations across the United States and, in the fall, to the Champagne region of France.

Her life is firmly rooted in the U.S., but she dreams of being able to share what she has learned with winemakers in her native Georgia. “I would love to help my country, to guide them into quality winemaking,” she said. “I feel like I have to honor all these opportunities to be here.”