Pamela Busch, Founder and Executive Director

Pamela Busch (Pamela/Louie/Pamelouie) is the founder and executive director of The Vinguard. They stumbled into the wine industry in 1990 after finding gainful employment at Astor Wines in New York while applying to graduate school. Hired by Kevin McKenna of Louis Dressner Selections, they were ruined from the start. Graduate school was put on a 27-year hold, and they moved to San Francisco. Shortly after relocating to the Bay Area, they were hired as the wine director in a formal restaurant where they got their first tastes of ‘‘61 Petrus, ‘59 Latour, and food and wine industry sexism. After one year, they left, longing for the irreverent spirit they found at Astor, and found it in 1994 when they opened Hayes and Vine Wine Bar. While Hayes and Vine was the second wine bar in the Bay Area, it was the first in many respects, not least that it was owned by two lesbians. 

Over the last three-plus decades, Pamela has written for numerous publications, including a ten-year stint as the SF Examiner’s wine columnist, opened CAV Wine Bar & Kitchen, one of the earliest places in the Bay area to serve natural wine, started The Grapes of Path wine school, taught at 18 Reasons and privately, and consulted to Bay Area restaurants. 

In 2013, they launched The Vinguard as a natural wine blog. However, noting the brewing misogyny afoot in the Bay Area natural wine scene, they started writing about sexism and other inequities in the wine industry. This led them to convert The Vinguard to a 501c3 non-profit organization tackling social and environmental justice issues in the wine industry.  It also led to finally going to graduate school, a fantastic decision they wish they’d made earlier in their life, but hindsight is at least 20-30, and most days, they love what they do. 

Pamela also co-founded Somebody’s Sister, a natural wine bar pop-up in the Bay Area, and occasionally hosts Supper Sessions, a weekly radio show on KXSF. 

Pamela is a vegan and writes about culinary experiments and outings at https://pamelabusch.substack.com/.