Jessica Dupuy was the guest host for a special TEXSOM series covering the 2025 TEXSOM Conference in Dallas, Texas. She covers conversations with key speakers and attendees, exploring career paths, challenges, and the latest trends shaping the wine industry today. This series is proudly sponsored by the Texas Department of Agriculture’s Uncork Texas Wines program, celebrating Texan wine culture by promoting local wineries and grape growers.
TEXSOM 2025 in Dallas, Texas
Today’s guest is James Tidwell, co-founder and producer of TEXSOM. Jessica and James are old friends and they discuss all that has happened in the past year, plus the forthcoming TEXSOM conference in August 2025. Jessica asks James for his perspective on some of the big issues that have been hitting the wine industry this year. James concedes that, “we have multiple issues that are hitting the wine industry this year, from tariffs to the flooding in Texas and other natural disasters, to the downturn in wine drinking. Many things have been covered in the media, so we don’t address those directly in any one seminar at Texsom, but we address them throughout several seminars. So you won’t necessarily see a seminar directly related to tariffs, but it will be addressed in multiple seminars. And so that’s how we tend to address things with our conference.” They agree there have been a lot of challenges in the industry in the past year or two and they accept that it’s likely to continue, causing great uncertainty which is difficult for everyone in the wine industry. Both believe that the uncertainty around tariffs has been one of the major issues and they hope for quick resolution.
James Tidwell MS, CWE
Jessica asks what themes and industry shifts will get attention at TEXSOM 2025. James responded by saying “Well, some of it is back to the basics. We have a couple of general tasting seminars. We have a couple of seminars on the basic craft of what we do. And I think that’s really important when we’re in an era like the one we’re having, we need to justify our existence. We are looking at AI generated wine lists and things like that now. So what are the important things that we do as sommeliers.” James adds that retail is also blurring the lines regarding what sommeliers do and why they are necessary, so looking closely at “the craft perspective of serving wine, making sure that it’s served correctly, making sure we know how to sell wine, making sure we understand how to buy wine, but then also understanding customer service and really making sure that the guest feels comfortable in what they’re doing. That’s the key.”
Jessica is not a floor sommelier but she believes that hospitality is crucial to what sommeliers do, and hospitality can’t be replaced with AI. James agrees and comments, “beyond care for our guests, there’s also care for ourselves. And I think that was one of the things that I looked at this year as I was looking at seminars, given this environment that we’re in now. How do we care for ourselves? And that might be how we define our values? How do we take care of ourselves, mentally, physically, emotionally? Because we can’t take care of the guests if we’re not taking care of ourselves.” James reveals that Julie Kuhlken, Ph.D. and Texan winemaker, will be a speaker at TEXSOM, talking about philosophy, wine, going beyond the craft itself to self-care for sommeliers in an environment that is challenging.
Seminar: Living Your Values Through Work
Speakers: Jessica Waugh, Kathleen Thomas, Maryam Ahmed, Thomas Price MS, Ren Peir
Jessica asks James to choose some of the sessions he would most like to attend and he responds, “we’ve got a great lineup this year, some faces that have been before, also some fresh faces that are coming in. It’s nice to see Tim Gaiser MS is back because he was there for the very early days of TEXSOM. This year, he’s coming to talk about his approach to tasting, which he’s written a book on. Ren Peir from Babe Wine Bar, will be giving her perspective on the industry and living values through work. There is a broad range of new speakers along with quite a few who’ve been here before in some capacity in recent years.”
The speakers discuss Tim Gaiser’s books, “Message in the Bottle” and “Strong Water,” eventually arriving at the topic of authenticity. James explains, “authenticity often comes up in our business, and authenticity is actually a huge philosophical exploration. And there are numerous books written on authenticity from a philosophical perspective. So I think there are some interesting concepts like this that could creep into the seminars and really open up some minds about what we’re doing with our industry.”
Another seminar at TEXSOM was presented by Dilek Caner MW, covering the wine culture of Turkey. James points out, “it’s such a historic, important piece of the puzzle when it comes to the history of wine in Europe, and we don’t talk about Turkey much.” He goes on to reminisce about going to Turkey himself and discovering the wines being produced “in a very challenging environment. And I think this speaks to some of what’s happening in the US right now: how to deal with a challenging environment when you’re producing good wines, but there are challenges to selling them.” James brings up the fact that, while there are wines of great quality coming out of Turkey, he never sees them because they are not imported into the USA. He was inspired to do something that would introduce people to quality wines coming from challenging environments.
Seminar: Wine Books, Wine Writing, and More!
Speakers: Jessica Dupuy, Sarah Jane Evans MW, Jim Clarke, Amanda Barnes MW
Jessica mentions that TEXSOM is known for creating the opportunity for people to expand their education and wine knowledge through certifications and courses offered by TEXSOM in the days before the conference. James lists the courses available this year, including WSET Level 2 Award in Wine, Sherry and Champagne Specialist courses, Wine Scholar Guild courses, and intro sessions with GuildSomm and Institute of Masters of Wine, where attendees can meet the key players and understand their mission. In addition to the early education on Saturday and Sunday this year, TEXSOM also hosted the Court of Master Sommeliers, who will be exhibiting at the conference itself. James is happy to note, “we have pretty much all the major groups who are going to be involved in the conference this year in terms of education partners.”
Turning to attendees at the conference, Jessica asks James how he views their experience. He replies, “I feel like this is an opportunity for reconnecting with my people. These are people who speak the same language. I love them. I don’t get to see them very often. This is our 20th year and we had no idea what to expect out of this conference. It was started as a way to help the industry and now it has grown into something it was never intended to be. It was never intended to be this large. It was never intended to be this involved. I’m not complaining. I’m glad it’s helped that many people and that people are benefiting from it. But I think there’s this sort of ineffable spirit of TEXSOM that is really something that is hard to define. I think that there’s a camaraderie, companionship, community, all these wonderful words that we use, but at the same time, none of that happens without everybody. And it really is the spirit of community and being there together that allows it to happen. There’s something more here. There is. I think that we still do things in a very old school kind of way. And there’s nothing wrong with big data, but we’re not big data. We do things a little bit differently. It provides a different look at the industry, I think, because of that. I think it also provides an opportunity for people to really connect. And so I think that’s one of the things that we really try to concentrate on at TEXSOM is this idea of connection and resonance.”
Elaine Chukan Brown interviewed James in a live seminar at TEXSOM, which has never happened before. Jessica comments that he has always been the behind-the-scenes master, so why agree to a public interview now? James answers, “TEXSOM is in its 20th year and things have changed remarkably over the years. Fortunately, our foundational principles still remain, and they will remain. I really wanted to be able to sit on stage and talk about how TEXSOM was created and why it was created, what we intended to do with it, how it’s changed over the years, how that has hopefully helped the conference and the people attending it because, ultimately that’s what we want, to help the people attending the conference in their lives. So it was an opportunity to really focus on some of the things going on with TEXSOM. I’m sure we’ll get into some personal things too. Elaine is known for that. She can make me cry on stage. So we’ll see how that goes.”
Do you want to hear more from Jessica and James? Listen to their interview covering the 2024 TEXSOM Conference, Episode 2077 on Italian Wine Podcast, recorded in September 2024.
Photo Credits: Ahna Hubnik/Vernon Bryant
