I kind of lead this dual life…as a writer and as a wine sommelier.

And before you ask, no…I do not moonlight as either. I really am both. After all…why choose? Wine and writing are perfect together.

Around the time I started writing seriously, I also started studying wine seriously. It was about fifteen years ago… when my life in New York as I knew it, ended. I had been the chief of staff to Dan Rather at CBS News and when that ended, I assumed, incorrectly, that it would be easy to find myself another job. It wasn’t.

Disheartened, I decided to go back to Paris, where I grew up, in the hopes that perhaps I could reinvent myself there.

Once I settled back into the Parisian lifestyle, my now aged uncle suggested that perhaps I study wine.

I’d always been around wine. It was a constant presence at lunches, dinners and copious amounts of it were drunk at Sunday lunch, which in my house, was a command performance for the entire family.

My aunt would spend Sunday mornings in the kitchen, usually yelling at the maid, twirling her wooden spoon like a weapon; and my poor uncle would hide downstairs in his cellar to keep out of her way. Mainly, though, he loved to walk up and down the old stone floors, looking at every bottle, doing a mental inventory of everything he had, whilst quietly indulging in a glass or two before lunch. “I had to taste the wine before serving it,” he would always say.

A big fan of Bordeaux, he’d been buying wine since the late ‘40s and as such, had some of the best vintages the region offered from the years after the Second World War and through the 70’s.

I still remember the lunch when I was allowed to have my first sip of wine. I don’t remember much apart from the sensation of red velvet going down my throat. Years later, when I understood and cared a bit more about wine, my uncle told that it was a 1959 Mouton Rothschild.

I took my uncle’s suggestion, but, much to his chagrin, decided to go to Burgundy. I signed up at the CFPPA, the main wine and agricultural institute in Beaune, where, besides academia, I had the honour to apprentice with some of the iconic winemakers of the region.

And that was the beginning of a journey...

that has taken me to the floors of Michelin-starred restaurants in Paris, Madrid and New York, working with iconic chefs, but also creating and curating important personal wine collections on both sides of the Atlantic, honing a craft that adds yet another avatar to what is becoming a life lived quite to the fullest.

Fifteen years and a lot of hard work later, I received a diploma with honours from the Wine & Spirits Education Trust.

So…? What’s next?

Master of Wine…of course.

Featured in the Press...

Winespectator.com

Women Sommeliers Power the Profession’s Future

What’s it like being a female in the male-dominated sommelier world? Women wine pros around the U.S. share their experiences, plus predictions for post-pandemic wine service…

Winespectator.com

Stephen Starr’s Transportive European Eatery Opens in New York

Verōnika is now open in the Flatiron District’s Fotografiska museum. Plus, Momofuku opens a second Majordōmo in Vegas, the Frasca team opens a Denver wine bar, and more…