Yuri Kato

Managing Director, Wall & William LLC

Wall & William, LLC is a beverage alcohol consulting firm and creative agency.  Since 2002, Kato has served various distilled spirit brands including Maker’s Mark, Yamazaki Whisky, St-Germain, Bacardi USA, Marie Brizard, Vodka Sobieski, WhistlePig, Ole Smokey Moonshine and many more. 

Kato was as a spokesperson for Japan’s largest liquor producer Suntory in the United States. She promoted their products including Yamazaki single malts and Hibiki whiskies. 

In conjunction with her role with Suntory, Kato wrote Japanese Cocktails (ISBN - 0811875113), published by Chronicle Books in 2009.

In 2014, Kato launched FRUITLAND AUGUSTA vodkas. She named the brand after the largest Georgia Peach farm from the 1800s' - "Fruitland Nurseries."  This farm was owned by a Belgian immigrant, PJ Berckmans, who planted over 3 million peach trees, becoming known as the Father of Georgia Peaches. After Berckmans passed away in 1910, his land eventually became Augusta National Golf Club, where they host the annual Masters tournament.  Berckmans' original residence still remains on the course and serves as their clubhouse today.  Kato sold Fruitland Augusta to a group of investors in Atlanta in 2021.  

Prior to her career in beverage alcohol industry, Kato spent several years at CNN and Time Warner in Atlanta and New York City. In 2005, Kato initiated and led the project to make CNN the first nationwide news network to accept distilled spirit commercials on air. She also served as a distilled spirits industry contributor on several networks including HeadlineNews, BBC, PBS, CBS, NBC, NYC TV, and many more.

She was born and raised in Japan. She attended Georgia Military College in Milledgeville, GA as the first international student accepted by the school.  She also attended Atlanta College of Art where she earned a Bachelor of Fine Arts (B.F.A).

Kato has visited over 200 distilleries in over 80 countries worldwide.