Who we are.
The passion for wine runs deep in our veins.
Laurent Yung
Co-founder & CEO
Laurent Yung grew up on his family’s vineyard in the Bordeaux region of France. Laurent comes from five generations of winemakers, and his passion for wine developed at an early age, through impassioned discussions of wine among his family. After receiving a degree in International Marketing and working in the business world for many years, Laurent decided to combine his passion for wine with his vast experience in marketing and sales. Through his family heritage and more particularly his brother Patrick, Laurent developed a multitude of connections among boutique vineyards across the French countryside. Laurent also noticed a lack of wine clubs in the American market featuring smaller, harder-to-find French wines. Laurent wanted to truly showcase the hidden jewels and lost treasures of French wine. And not soon after, SomMailier was born.
Elise Yung
Partner & co-founder
Elise Yung is Laurent’s wife and partner of 20 years. Together they have lived in various places around the world, such as Sweden, New York, Paris, Bordeaux and finally San Diego, where they settled in 2013 with their 3 children, Gabriel, Benjamin and Eva. Elise has explored the intricacies and subtleties of wine through her parents, who have made monthly blind wine tastings a family tradition for over 30 years!
Patrick Yung
President & owner of Laplace CDP France – sourcing partner
Patrick Yung is Laurent’s older brother and like Laurent, grew up deeply immersed in the culture of winemaking. After studying Business, Patrick decided to follow in his father’s footsteps and started working in the wine business. He joined Château Mouton Rothschild from 1992-2002, 1 of the top 5 first growths in Bordeaux. While working there, Patrick developed an in-depth knowledge of all the secrets within one of the most renowned winemakers in the world. He recently acquired a pristine wine distributor in Paris, which has been discovering and bringing to light exceptional boutique French wines since 1948. SomMailier is benefiting from his expertise and closely-tied network to bring these wines to the United States.
Pierre Guillemin
expert curator, Laplace CDP
Pierre Guillemin works with Laurent’s brother, Patrick at LaPlace CDP in Paris. He has been curating extraordinary French boutique wines for over 20 years and has been an incredible partner to Patrick since he bought LaPlace. Pierre has had different roles within LaPlace, most notably in discovering unique small-batch wineries and helping bring their exceptional wines to places like renowned luxury hotel groups such as Accord or Pullman Paris Tour Eiffel, the Culinary Institute of Paris, and even the French Open tennis tournament, to name a few. Pierre has also been involved with the introduction of unique food/wine pairing training that is currently being used in several wine institutes to educate luxury hotel waiters. Through SomMailier, members will be able to discover this fun and unique educational content that will deliver the keys to better understanding French food & wine pairing!
Julia Tinsley
Operations & Customer Service Manager
Julia Tinsley got her start in the beverage industry by working in craft beer before moving to San Diego. She soon discovered that the sensory experience is the same for beer and wine, and her knowledge could be applied to wine production. She enjoys learning about the different wine-making regions of the world, and hopes to gain her Sommelier certification. She currently has a Level 1 certificate from the Wine and Spirits Education Trust (WSET) and is in the process of earning her French Wine Scholar (FWS) certificate. Julia joined somMailier to help with the shipments through the busy holiday season in 2020, but discovered her organizational skills had a great fit with the company and now runs the order fulfillment and shipping processes.
