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WORK TITLE: Wine Girl: The Obstacles, Humiliations, and Triumphs of America’s Youngest Sommelier
WORK NOTES:
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BIRTHDATE:
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CITY: New York
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COUNTRY: United States
NATIONALITY: American
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RESEARCHER NOTES:
PERSONAL
Born c. 1991.
EDUCATION:Attended college.
ADDRESS
CAREER
Writer and sommelier. Cote, New York, NY, beverage director and partner. Previously worked at various restaurants in New York, including Marea, Aureole; and the Piora, where she served as the wine director.
WRITINGS
Authored the blog “Get Your Grape On.”
SIDELIGHTS
Victoria James is originally from Washington, DC. She began working in restaurants when she was thirteen years old and became a certified sommelier at the age of twenty-one. James rapidly gained recognition for her expertise and has been named to a number of notable lists, including “Best New Sommeliers” produced by Wine & Spirits. In addition to being a partner and beverage director in a prestigious restaurant in New York City, James has traveled worldwide visiting vineyards and wrote about them on her blog.
James’s path to becoming a sommelier began while the was working in a bar and realized she knew nothing about beverages. As a result, she begn reading about them, telling VinePair website contributor Rachel Tepper Paley: “I went down the rabbit hole from there.” She eventually decided to focus on wines after reading Wine for Dummies, telling VinePair‘s Paley: “I think that the most interesting thing for me was learning that this beverage was so much more than just liquid, that it actually had centuries of tradition behind it—so many families and stories.”
In addition to cowriting Drink Pink: A Celebration of Rosé with Lyle Railsback, James is the author of the memoir Wine Girl: The Obstacles, Humiliations, and Triumphs of America’s Youngest Sommelier. Spanning her life from the ages of seven to twenty-eight, James tells the story of her abusive childhood and her road to becoming the youngest sommelier in the United States at a restaurant to receive a Michelin star. She was twenty-one years old at the time. James also reveals the darker side of the restaurant business, writing about the difficult and sometimes abusive bosses and patrons she has encountered during her career.
James reveals that her mother had left when she was still a child, leaving her to grow up with an alcoholic father. Her first job in the restaurant business was in a diner, where following the end of shift she was raped by a customer. After a brief time doing drugs to get over the trauma, James decided to move to New York City, where she became a bartender at an Italian restaurant while attending college. James eventually quit college and became a certified sommelier. Although she was enamored with wines and their history, James eventually became disillusioned working in the city’s high-end restaurants. According to James, she faced numerous difficulties as a young woman in a world predominantly ruled by men.
After reaching a low point, James decided to take a trip to France to visit the vineyards. After realizing a new sense of purpose, she returned to the United States determined not to accept any type of abuse. She eventually became co-owner of a restaurant and started the nonprofit Wine Empowered to help minorities and women get into the hospitality field.
Wine Girl “will speak to wine geeks as well as those who don’t know Burgundy from Budweiser,” wrote a Publishers Weekly contributor. Noting that James reveals stories that are “disturbing and graphic in nature,” a Kirkus Reviews contributor went on to comment: James “breezily weaves in her knowledge and passion for wine and shares the generous love she has for her siblings, friends, and husband.”
BIOCRIT
PERIODICALS
Publishers Weekly, October 14, 2019, review of Wine Girl: The Obstacles, Humiliations, and Triumphs of America’s Youngest Sommelier, p. 55.
ONLINE
Kirkus Reviews, https://www.kirkusreviews.com/ (November 5, 2019), review of Wine Girl.
StarChefs.com, https://www.starchefs.com/ (October 1, 2018), “Sommelier Victoria James of Cote — Biography.”
VinePair, https://vinepair.com/ (January 11, 2018), Rachel Teper Paley, “The Making of a Legend: Wine Prodigy Victoria James Wants to Bring Old-School Hospitality Back to Wine.”
Victoria James has worked in restaurants since she was thirteen. She fell in love with wine and when she was twenty-one became certified as a sommelier. She has worked at some of the most prestigious restaurants in New York City including Marea and Aureole. She is now the Wine Director at Piora in the West Village. Victoria's name has appeared on many notable lists: Zagat's "30 Under 30," Wine Enthusiast's "40 Under 40," Forbes' "10 Innovators Under 30 Shaking Up the New York Food Scene," Wine & Spirits' "Best New Sommeliers," and The Back Label declared her "New York's Youngest Sommelier." She travels as much as possible to vineyards around the world and writes about the stories behind the wines. In her free time, she makes Amaro from foraged plants. Currently, she lives in New York City with her sister Laura, her boyfriend Lyle, and her dog Rocco.
Victoria James has worked in restaurants since she was thirteen. She was certified as a sommelier when she was twenty-one, making her the youngest sommelier in the country. She was Food & Wine’s Sommelier of the Year in 2018, and has appeared on both Forbes and Zagat’s “30 Under 30” lists. She has worked at some of the most prestigious restaurants in New York City, including Marea and Aureole. Currently, she is the Beverage Director and partner at Cote, a Michelin-starred hot spot in the Flatiron district. She is the author of Drink Pink: A Celebration of Rosé, which Harper Design published in 2017.
The Making of a Legend: Wine Prodigy Victoria James Wants to Bring Old-School Hospitality Back to Wine
words: RACHEL TEPPER PALEY
This article and the Making of a Legend series is brought to you by Légende, the taste of elegance.
The word “wunderkind” gets thrown around a lot, but it actually applies in the case of sommelier Victoria James. Already well-versed in wine know-how by her late teens, James dropped out of college in favor of pursuing the noble grape. The risky move paid off: By the time she was 21, James had not only secured a sommelier certification but also a high-profile job pouring pricey wines at Charlie Palmer’s Aureole.
James’s rapid rise later led her to the lauded wine programs of Ristorante Morini, Marea, Piora, and now, Piora’s parent company, Gracious Hospitality, where she oversees all things liquid at sister restaurant Cote. It’s an impressive resume, all the more improbable considering she’s just 27.
So how’d James get to where she is today? VinePair tracked her down to find out.
So, how exactly does an underage kid amass so much wine knowledge? Did you come from a wine family?
Not exactly… My stepmother drinks Franzia from the box and my dad drinks vodka with the suggestion of orange juice. I got into wine through restaurants—restaurants are really my first love. I started working at a greasy spoon diner when I was 13 and progressed to become a bartender when I was 18. In New York State, you can legally be a bartender at 18, but you can’t legally drink. It’s really weird! I quickly realized that I knew nothing about beverages, so I read a lot of books. I went down the rabbit hole from there.
What was the book that first stoked your wine obsession?
I uncovered this dusty edition of “Wine for Dummies!” For me, it was the thing that showed me there was this world that was so, so complicated with all these stories. It was that exposure to that drove my education and fury.
What’d you find so enticing about wine back then, even though you couldn’t legally drink it?
I think that the most interesting thing for me was learning that this beverage was so much more than just liquid, that it actually had centuries of tradition behind it—so many families and stories. It was this world that combined so many of the things that I love: travel, people, reading, and writing.
Yes! You write as well as pour. Usually, it’s one or the other with wine professionals.
Most people are not stupid like me—they like their free time! But being a sommelier and a writer gives you a perspective that not a lot of other people may have, which I think is nice. I have a book on rosé called “Drink Pink” that just came out and I’m working on book number two.
What was the first wine gig that truly inspired you?
In the winter of 2010 to 2011, I worked at Harry’s Café and Steak in Hanover Square, which is an old-school classic steakhouse. Harry Poulakakos has been buying wine since the 1960s for Harry’s, and he has accrued now about $8 million-worth of wine spread over four floors. I was a “cellar rat,” so my job was to organize the whole thing. It was pretty crazy to be able to see that and touch those bottles, things that might no longer exist anywhere else.
Victoria James is a Legend
Do you have any favorite moments from that time?
Oh, there are so many stories. Harry would say things like, “I bought this bottle in 1972 for $4!” And it would be a bottle that was pretty insane. I got to taste benchmark vintages of Bordeaux and California Burgundy, which I’ve found invaluable throughout my career. I think that I’m so fortunate—a lot of sommeliers start out in the industry in places that are cool or trendy, but they miss out on all of that history and the classics. Harry’s is paying homage to that. I was surrounded by a lot of old-timers in the industry who could tell me about history.
What were those old-timers like?
Harry’s is such an old-school institution. You can say its model predates or never had sommeliers. The captain dominates the floor and does service from A to Z, including wine recommendations. They pass on their wisdom to you and share the mistakes they’ve made. The captains were so good at selling wine and making people feel good about the wine they purchased. And a lot of them maybe didn’t know much about wine! Some of it was bullshit—and that you don’t want to continue with—but a lot of it was about making the guest feel good about themselves and using wine a tool of hospitality.
Do you think today’s sommeliers are too intimidating?
The New York dining scene has changed a bit—there’s an attention to quality of the food and where it comes from, and that’s great. But wine culture has become rigid and too knowledge-based. The old school captains, they had the ability to have a conversation with anyone about anything. I think that’s something that’s been lost a bit. We’ve all become a bit obsessed with chasing knowledge without paying attention to that warmth. I think that is something that I like to bring into all aspects of my work.
After Harry’s, you got your sommelier certification and worked at Aureole, Ristorante Morini, and Marea. Why’d you leave?
You can be a sommelier your whole life if you want to, but I wanted to make something that was my own. I really wanted to run my own program. At Piora, the program already existed and had a focus on Champagne and small producers, but I took that over and made it my own. I wanted to bring in wine I was passionate about. I felt that I could create a unique wine list that was approachable.
What makes for a good wine list, in your opinion?
The program is only as good as the person who runs it! It has to be profitable, meaning it has to make the restaurant money. But it’s also supposed to bring people joy and happiness. It’s not supposed to be snobby. It’s supposed to be fun, because wine is fun.
How do you design a wine program for maximum fun?
The first thing is having a variety of price points. Also, we do a lot of fun stuff, like large format and magnums—there’s something inherently impressive and fun about bringing a huge bottle of wine over to the table, plus the wine actually tastes better. That’s a great conversation starter. I try to stick to regions and styles that I like, and I like wines that are clean. I don’t like funky natural things, but I also like to support small growers instead of big corporations.
What wines have graced your menu in recent memory?
We have a great rosé collection and an awesome Champagne list, but they’re not marked up much, so you can actually drink them for a steal. There are a lot of small producers and Cru Beaujolais and island wines and wines from Switzerland. It’s always a hodgepodge of things I’m into at the moment.
How often do you switch up your selection?
We change the menu every day. This week we added on 80 selections and 30 or 40 came off. At this very moment, we have about 1,000 selections of wine available.
Wow! That’s a lot of wine.
It keeps you on your toes and lets people taste different things! But even though we have 1,000 selections, some bottles we may only have one of. A lot of stuff we have is rare and quite hard to get so we don’t have a ton of it.
If there’s one piece of wine knowledge you could impart to guests, what would it be?
Drink wine that’s delicious that you want to drink.
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Published: January 11, 2018
Sommelier Victoria James of Cote - Biography
New York, NY
October 2018
Originally from Washington, D.C., Victoria James worked in restaurants from the age of 13, but it wasn’t until she needed extra cash in college that she got behind the bar. When James dropped out of college, she became a cellar-hand at Harry’s Café and Steak in New York City and studied to become a Certified Sommelier with The Court of Master Sommeliers. James went on to pour at some of the most lauded restaurants in New York, including Aureole and Marea, spending two years at each while helping open Michael White’s Ristorante Morini in between. After serving as beverage director of Michelin-starred Piora, James now runs the beverage program for Cote, a modern Korean steakhouse. She oversees everything from the water selection to the soju cocktails.
When she’s not working the floor, James travels to vineyards around the world and writes about her experiences for her blog “Get Your Grape On.” She has been named to Zagat’s “30 Under 30,” Wine Enthusiast’s “40 Under 40 Tastemakers,” Forbes’ “10 Innovators Under 30 Shaking Up the New York Food Scene,” and Wine & Spirits’ “Best New Sommeliers.” Her book about rosé, Drink Pink, which she co-authored with Lyle Railsback, was released in 2017.
* Wine Girl: The Obstacles, Humiliations, and Triumphs of America's Youngest Sommelier
Victoria James. Ecco, $26.99 (336p) ISBN 978-0-06-296167-9
In this gritty, eloquent memoir, James, who became the countty's youngest sommelier at 21, talks about overcoming sexual assault and sexism as she built a career in the restaurant business. The book, which spans James's life from age seven to 28, opens with an overview of her unstable childhood, which included an absent mother and alcoholic father. James worked in greasy diners as a teenager and painfully describes being raped by a customer after a shift. She briefly turned to drugs after the attack, then got clean and moved to New York City, where she landed a bartending job at an Italian restaurant. Her first sommelier job was at Michelin-starred Aureole, where she learned how to make wine recommendations and how to scan a customer's appearance to determine how much money they might spend. Often dismissed by customers who disliked taking advice from a woman, she relentlessly studied wine and won awards, among them the prestigious Sud de France Sommelier Challenge. James grippingly discusses working at several high-end restaurants and wading through ugly swamps of unwanted advances and crude comments before finding a happy home at Michelin-starred Cote, where she is the beverage director. This will speak to wine geeks as well as those who don't know Burgundy from Budweiser. (Mar.)
Copyright: COPYRIGHT 2019 PWxyz, LLC
http://www.publishersweekly.com/
Source Citation
Source Citation (MLA 8th Edition)
"Wine Girl: The Obstacles, Humiliations, and Triumphs of America's Youngest Sommelier." Publishers Weekly, 14 Oct. 2019, p. 55. Gale General OneFile, https://link.gale.com/apps/doc/A603319010/ITOF?u=schlager&sid=ITOF&xid=2db1e076. Accessed 10 Nov. 2019.
Gale Document Number: GALE|A603319010
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The Obstacles, Humiliations, and Triumphs of America's Youngest Sommelier
by Victoria James
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KIRKUS REVIEW
A memoir from the youngest certified sommelier in the male-dominated wine industry.
After her passionate response to the final question of the competition, James (Drink Pink: A Celebration of Rosé, 2017) won the Sud de France Sommelier Challenge in 2013, becoming the first American female sommelier to take home the title. Soon after, at the age of 21, she became the youngest certified sommelier. Getting to that point was not an easy task. Along the way, she endured a tumultuous upbringing due to an absent mother and an alcoholic father as well as verbal and sexual abuse from customers. Growing up, James felt “that one’s social class did not define one’s character” and had the notion that she could “bring people together through wine” as a sommelier. Becoming a certified sommelier should have been a life-changing event, but she soon discovered it was not. Despite her successes, she was continually belittled for her age and faced sexism and abuse of power from employers and clients. After years of humiliation in the high-end restaurant world, where men hold the majority of the power, James became disillusioned and escaped to the vineyards of France, seeking authenticity. There, she also discovered a true sense of purpose. On her return to the States, with the support of her family, she felt “empowered to make a change.” She established a zero-tolerance policy at the restaurant she now co-owns, and, with a vision for “diversifying the wine world,” she created Wine Empowered, a nonprofit organization that offers tuition-free education for minorities and women in the hospitality industry. She also finished her book, which shares this journey and dispels many of the myths associated with the wine industry. Many of the details James shares about her experiences are disturbing and graphic in nature; however, her story also exudes warmth as she breezily weaves in her knowledge and passion for wine and shares the generous love she has for her siblings, friends, and husband.
An inspiring, captivating story of resilience.
Pub Date: March 24th, 2020
ISBN: 978-0-06-296167-9
Page count: 336pp
Publisher: Ecco/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: Nov. 5th, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1st, 2019