Raised in Colorado and educated in Texas, Andrew Wooldridge initially studied entrepreneurship and international business before pursuing a culinary education at the Cordon Bleu in Paris. Upon his return to the United States, he began working as a chef at a winery.

For a time, Wooldridge shifted to the world of advertising and even earned a Masters in Humanities from the University of Chicago. Throughout that time, his exposure to wine was simmering under the surface, so he headed west to pursue wine classes at the Culinary Institute of America’s Greystone campus.

Wine training in hand, Wooldridge returned to Texas and began working front-of-house positions at a series of fine dining restaurants. The opportunity to open the Burgundy-centric restaurant La V introduced him to Vilma Mazaite, a Master Sommelier candidate and alumna of the acclaimed Little Nell wine team. Wooldridge soon added “cellar rat” to his bartender credentials, and by the time he moved to D.C. in 2014, he had keenly honed his taste buds.

In D.C. Wooldridge first opened the buzzy French bistro Chez Billy Sud in Georgetown. From there, he joined the team at The Inn at Little Washington, widely considered as one of the city’s most influential restaurants—not to mention a 21 time winner of the Wine Spectator Grand Award.

When the opportunity to join the wine team at DBGB DC arrived, Wooldridge was eager to dive into both the liquid riches of Chef Boulud’s native France, namely wines from Burgundy and the Rhone. In the first six months of his arrival, Wooldridge has already expanded both the approachability and the depth of the wine list. In particular, guests can now enjoy a selection of reserve wines poured with the Coravin and a weekly large format program, to allow for more eccentric and far-reaching by-the-glass pours for adventurous novices and seasoned collectors alike.