Dame was born in California and attended Washington and Lee University, earning a degree in journalism and communications.
[2] Dame in 1984 became a Master Sommelier, passing the exam in London before the United States had a court.
[3] He was the first person to pass all three parts of the Master Sommelier examination on the first attempt, which is called "winning the Krug Cup".
[4][2][5] In 1986 he was co-founder of the Court of Master Sommeliers in the United States and was its first president.
[3] In 2020, during the Me Too movement, Dame was accused by multiple female Master Sommeliers or former Master Sommelier candidates of sexual harassment and eventually expelled from the organization.