Dennis Fraley, The Bottle Talk

“I have an absolute love of Northwest wine,” says Dennis Fraley, the 2026 recipient of the Allen Shoup Memorial Fellowship for Writers and Communicators. (Full disclosure: I am on the committee that selects recipients.)

Shoup, who passed away in 2022, was the long-time head of Ste. Michelle Wine Estates, Washington’s largest winery, and later founded Long Shadows, a prominent Walla Walla winery. The fellowship, which is an industry-wide collaboration, honors Shoup by increasing media awareness of Washington wine by elevating emerging writers and communicators.

Fraley has already visited Washington wine country but is excited to return and learn more.

“What I really love to do, which takes a little more time, is to find the stories behind the wineries, winemakers, and growers,” Fraley says. “To me, to experience Washington state wine, you need to come and see it, boots on the ground. I will be promoting that.”

Born and raised in Pittsburgh, Fraley received a B.A. in chemistry from Washington & Jefferson College, a small, liberal arts school in southwestern Pennsylvania. Early on, he was inspired to learn about anesthesiology, with his grandmother a nurse anesthetist for almost 40 years.

“My grandmother raised me from the time I was about six months old,” Fraley says. “I remember seeing how she treated people and the things that she did. She had a huge influence on me.” Fraley subsequently received a master’s degree in anesthesia from La Roche College in Pennsylvania.

After graduating, Fraley looked for a warmer place to live, with his Virginia-born wife not a fan of Pittsburgh winters. He was offered a job in Florence, South Carolina.

“We said we’ll try it for a year and see if we like it. We’ve been here for 26 years now,” says Fraley. “Even though it gets to be Serengeti-hot down in the south, you never have to shovel sunshine.”

In Florence, Fraley works as a certified registered nurse anesthetist. He enjoys working with what many would consider more challenging cases.

“You endear yourself to a place by doing some of the cases that nobody else likes or wants to do,” he says.

Fraley’s interest in wine was kindled by a college exchange student from Great Britain who loved wine. “We’d sit around, five or six guys, drinking wine and eating cheese, pontificating about the universe,” Fraley says.

An oral surgeon where Fraley worked also loved wine. He would host dinners pairing wine and food, talking about the wine and its history. It led to Fraley’s ‘Aha!’ moment.

“I’m a sucker for a story,” he says. “I’m Irish. We love telling stories.”

While he studied anesthesiology, Fraley’s ability to learn more about wine moved to the backburner. It came back to the front once he moved to South Carolina.

Fraley started taking Wine and Spirits Education Trust (WSET) courses. After completing the intermediate course, he took the advanced course, driving two hours to Charleston and back every weekend for classes. He subsequently completed the WSET diploma, flying to Philadelphia for exams. In addition to these certifications, Fraley is a Certified Specialist of Wine, French Wine Scholar, Certified Sherry Wine Specialist, and Certified Wine Judge through the American Wine Society.

Fraley started The Bottle Talk in 2013. He wrote a monthly column for the Florence Morning News for 12+ years. For the last three years, he has written for the Post and Courier in Charleston. Fraley has written for Vinum, a European wine magazine, and recently wrote articles about the history of Willamette Valley Grüner Veltliner and Brandy production in Hudson, New York in Food & Wine magazine.

“My writing is an escape,” says Fraley, who is 54. “My job, it’s so analytical and technical. We look at numbers and patients, and we look at history. After 10 hours of work, writing sounds like more work, but it checks the other side of my brain.”

The Allen Shoup Memorial Fellowship, now in its third year, provides a stipend and sponsors travel to Washington wine country for emerging writers and communicators. Previous recipients have been Gwendolyn Elliott and Amy Beth Wright.

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