Wine School co-owner dedicated to her pursuits.
Quick study Liz Palmer running school and collectors’ storage facility
There was a time, early in their relationship, when Liz Palmer would attend a wine function and she’d have to turn to her husband and ask, “Paul, what should I drink?” Paul Palmer was already a serious collector. The only things Liz knew were that wine came in three colors and too much of it made one’s head spin.
But today wine is her day job — sometimes causing her head to spin for reasons other than consumption. And it’s the Palmer future, or that’s the plan, anyway. They now own the Texas Wine School, and she’s in charge. Also, as of a week or so ago, the couple’s sleek new Art of Collecting storage facility is up and running. Paul, a partner in a large accounting firm, had crunched the numbers and sees AOC as the linchpin for the whole business.
“It’s going to take some time,” Liz says, “but if it goes as well as we expect it to — most of the other storage places around us are currently sold out — it will allow us to do a lot of different, more creative things with the school.”
AOC has just over 100 lockers of varying size available, starting at $310 a month for one with enough room to store up to 550 bottles. Small lots of a case or two also can be kept there — a feature, the Palmers point out, that hasn’t routinely been offered by their competitors, including Vin de Garde, Nos Caves Vin and Big Tex.
“We have a couple of members who have space at other spots that are sold out but need more room,” Paul says.
AOC locker-holders/ members will have the obligatory 24/7 access and comfortable common spaces, including a lovely enclosed patio that figures to be a major amenity once fall arrives in earnest. The venue also can be rented for private nonmember events.
The Palmers took over the Texas Wine School this year from founder James King, who moved to Arkansas after his wife was offered an executive position with Walmart. King retains a small piece of the pie in return for coming back a couple of times a year to contribute on the educational side.
“It’s been a really nice way to transition into a business that I’m new to,” Liz says.
King’s original venue was near Rice Village, but the Palmers have relocated to the other side of the Southwest Freeway, setting up the school and AOC under the same roof at 2301 Portsmouth. They’ve built out a space in what was once a private home and are now hoping people will come both to stash and study wine.
Concerning the latter, the bedrock is the Wine & Spirit Education Trust study program. Liz, 43, originally got to know King by enrolling in the program and now has only to ace the fourth and final exam in November to earn her WSET diploma, after which she will be considered a certified, for-real wine-and-spirits expert.
Palmer teaches WSET classes at the school herself, saying, “I’m good for up to one a week,” noting that she has a 13-year-old and a 10-yearold at home. The school’s other eight instructors — all known commodities in local wine circles — have achieved at least WSET Level 3, which she calls “the minimum requirement” to teach.
Palmer has come a long way in wine in a relatively short period; for her, studying is a labor of love.
“I approached (wine) differently from most people,” she says. “If you give me a book and get me intellectually interested, it makes me appreciate the wines more. I have a passion for learning, for acquiring knowledge.”
Until wine turned her head, she was working on a Ph.D. in international relations/political science with the goal of landing a job as a college professor. But, she says, “I came to realize that would entail moving and, because my whole family’s here (she grew up in the FM 1960 area and attended Westfield High School), I didn’t want to leave Houston.”