Cara Bertone

Coming Up

Wine work can carry a different weight when the first lessons come from instability at home. For Cara Bertone, that background shaped a relationship to wine that reads less as lifestyle and more as discipline: paying attention, staying steady, and learning to build structure inside a messy world. In a trade often reduced to tasting language and numbers, her entry point was not romance but the practical business of making a place for herself. Cara Bertone entered hospitality in 2008 as a restaurant worker before moving into the wholesale side of the wine business. That sequence gave her a view of how wine actually moves: on the floor, through service, and then through distribution. The work built from the ground up, with each step adding a clearer read on the link between producers, distributors, and the table. Over time, that accumulation became the basis for a broader sales career. The role she holds now reflects the kind of trust earned through years of working both service and wholesale, and through understanding the trade as a system rather than a single job.

Where They Are Now

Leadership in wine sales often depends on translating strategy into relationships that hold up under pressure. As Vice President of Lift Collective and Director of Sales at Avaline in Texas, USA, Cara Bertone works across coordination, support, and commercial execution. Her own description of the job keeps it plain: “In my current role at Avaline, I manage and support distributor partners to achieve sales plans and goals.” That is the work in its basic form—setting targets, keeping partners aligned, and carrying the sales plan through the trade. Length of time matters in this business because it changes what you can see. When Cara Bertone says, “I have spent more than 20 years in the wine industry,” the claim signals more than tenure; it marks a long stretch of adaptation to shifting markets, expectations, and language around value. Her path, from restaurant service to wholesale to sales leadership, reflects that kind of continuity.

In Their Words “In my current role at Avaline, I manage and support distributor partners to achieve sales plans and goals.” “I have spent more than 20 years in the wine industry.”