Ole Thompson

Newton Wines
Ole Thompson
Participating Events
3:00 PM - 4:00 PM Saturday, May 2
Ole Thompson

Having spent his entire adult life in the wine business, Ole has worked in every aspect of the industry. He started when he was still in college, setting up a small wine department in Washington that he would grow into one of the top wine retailers in the state.

From there Ole became the Wine Director of the Wild Ginger restaurant group in Seattle, at the time one of the most important in North America, where he transformed the program into one cellaring 37,000 bottles, employing 15 sommeliers, and garnering one of only two Wine Spectator Grand Awards in the Pacific Northwest. The 80-page wine list ranged from an entire page dedicated to different bottlings and vintages of Krug and Dom Perignon, to 12 pages of German Rieslings. Ole also created a yearly charity event in Seattle called ‘The Triple Sip’; one of the key wine events in the country where 400+ attendees and 45 of the West Coast’s top winemakers created a signature wine event in a renovated vaudeville theater.

More recently, Ole was part of the legendary Treasury Wine Estates Luxury Selling Division team, working under the direction renowned Master Sommelier Fred Dame, that was featured in the first ‘Somm’ movie. From there, Ole ran two Washington distributors that represented brands such as Turley, Bond, Evening Land, Domaine Leroy, and Beaux Freres. Ole has also run sales for the pioneering Spanish importer Classical Wines from Spain. He has been mentioned and quoted in many publications and programs including NPR, The Wine Spectator, Decanter, The Wine Enthusiast, Wine & Spirits and was voted Washington State sommelier of the year by the Seattle Times Newspaper. Ole is an Advanced Sommelier with the Court of Master Sommeliers and is currently studying for the Master Sommelier exam.