Team

Per Soehlke was born in Bogotà. After graduating from high school in Tübingen, he opted for an apprenticeship as a chef in a classic restaurant. After a few stages in Provence and Tuscany, he worked for Gualtiero Marchesi in Milan, at the time Italy’s first 3-star chef.

He spent an important period with Charles Schumann in Munich before joining the famous Avignonesi winery in Tuscany. In the early 1990s, Per Soehlke founded Smart-Wines GmbH, based in Cologne, a marketing and sales agency for renowned wineries. Per Soehlke describes himself as a “foodie”.

Per
Soehlke

Born in Berlin, grew up in the sea of houses in the metropolis of São Paulo, Brazil. Viticulture & Enology in Geisenheim. He gained experience at various Rheingau wineries – e.g. Georg Breuer or Schloss Reinhartshausen. In the name of wine he worked at FrischeParadies in Frankfurt. He has been part of the Smart Wines team since 2009.

Alexander
Hecht

After completing her studies in foreign languages, the Palatinate native spent the first ten years of her professional life at the Italian Institute for Foreign Trade in Frankfurt am Main. There, among other things, she had her first contact with Italian wine, which was expanded and deepened in the following seven years at the company DC Weinimporte in Hofheim, far beyond the Italian borders.

After an interlude with an American company in the water treatment sector, the offer of Smart Wines attracted her and she left the beautiful Frankfurt after more than 20 years to move to Cologne and devote herself more to wine again.

Dagmar
Pulitano

Born and raised in Vienna. After studying economics there and in Barcelona and gaining professional experience in steel and cosmetics, Germany has been her second home since 1988, because: O-Ton “Vienna remains Vienna”. Since 1999 a “Smartie” of the first hour and therefore versed in dealing with customers and organizing events.

Susanne
van Kesteren

As a “native plant,” he enjoys the view of Cologne Cathedral from his office every day. He studied Romance languages and literature and art history in Cologne and Bonn. After a course in PR journalism and a decade in the museum, in an event and a PR agency, he wanted to get to the bottom of his favorite drink: Training as a wine consultant (IHK/ Koblenz) was followed by a few years with an importer. At a trade fair in 2006 he got hold of the Smart-Wines newsletter. Since that unforgettable reading pleasure, he has been writing texts of all kinds for the Cologne agency, in addition to assignments.

Marcus
Pretor

A Dresden native with heart and soul and an enthusiastic sommelier with heart and mind. The years of apprenticeship and travel through the Republic, London and Paris, were followed by a degree in hotel management at the Hotelfachschule Heidelberg. In 2008, he took over the management of the wine cellar at Schloss Lerbach, where he has rushed from success to success alongside star chef Nils Henkel: “Best Sommelier in Germany”, “Sommelier of the Year” (Gault Millau), the Advanced Sommelier (Court of Master Sommeliers) and the Diploma at the WSET are just a few milestones in his vita.

Since August 2013 he has been involved in sales at Smart-Wines, in particular he is on hand with advice and assistance when it comes to wine qualities and analyses.

Thomas
Sommer

Despite his Bavarian roots, Jakob Jarden has become a true “Hamburg boy. After graduating from high school and doing his community service, his great interest in good food and wine led him directly to training as a hotel manager.

But even years of apprenticeship at Hamburg’s Hotel Louis C. Jacob hotel in Hamburg could not prevent him from ending up in the wine industry.

Influenced by the trade with high-quality wines in his father’s company and after several stations at Von Winning, Roland Velich, Weingut Heinrich as well as Celler de Capçanes, he has now arrived in the middle of the Smart-Wines team.

Jakob
Jarden

Born in Bolivia, Ana Luhnau made the Rhineland her adopted home a long time ago.

Professionally, Ana Luhnau started her career in the educational field. However, a side job in the catering trade led to a change of direction. Starting as a career changer, she passed through several stations and focused more and more on the topic of upscale gastronomy and wine, until she finally worked in the star restaurant Purs** as a restaurant manager. Thanks to experiences on the Mosel and in South Africa, the subject of wine became her great passion, so that she trained as a sommelière.

After ten years in the restaurant business, she has now decided to make wine the main focus of her profession and that the time is ripe for a new field of activity. This decision leads her to Smart-Wines at the beginning of 2022.

Ana
Luhnau