Dennis Fraley,DipWSET, CSW, FWS, CSWS

Dennis Fraley spends four days a week putting people to sleep and the rest of it trying to wake them up to what is in their glass.

He writes a monthly column for the Post and Courier, now in its third year, and has domestic and international bylines in Food & Wine and Vinum. For fourteen years he wrote The Bottle Talk for the Florence Morning News and scnow.com. It lives here now.

In 2026 the Washington State Wine Commission named him the Allen Shoup Memorial Fellow. That same year he was shortlisted for the Early Mountain Wine Writer Fellowship. He directs the American Wine Society’s National Tasting Project, which every year sends one region’s wines to tasting groups across the country and asks ordinary drinkers what they actually think.

Dennis is a Pittsburgh native with a B.A. in Chemistry from Washington and Jefferson College and a Master of Anesthesia from La Roche College. He has lived in Florence, South Carolina for 26 years, where he works as a Certified Registered Nurse Anesthetist. The chemistry turned out to be useful. The anesthesia pays for the wine.

His formal wine education ran through the Wine and Spirits Education Trust, Intermediate and Advanced in Charleston, graduating with Distinction, then the WSET Diploma through Philly Wine under Neal Ewing. He also holds the Certified Specialist of Wine, French Wine Scholar, and Certified Sherry Wine Specialist credentials.

He is a Certified Wine Judge through the American Wine Society and has judged the International Wine Challenge in London, the Atlantic Seaboard Wine Association competition, the WineMaker Magazine amateur competition, and the Commissioner’s Cup Kentucky State Wine Competition. Closer to home, he teaches wine classes, leads guided tastings, and builds pairing dinners with local chefs.

Think How You Drink

The mantra comes from a plain belief: when people take the time to think about what they are putting in their gob, they appreciate not only the food and the drink but the labor of everyone who made it.

This started because too many good drinkers have been made to feel stupid by industry professionals. Trust your own palate. It is yours, nobody else can taste with it, and no one gets to overrule you about what you like. The rest of the job is closing the gap between the people who make wine and the people who drink it, through humor, education, and, of course, consumption.

Wine education is like a good recipe. It is meant to be shared.