Meet Social Media’s Favorite Wine Girl - Victoria James

In a short chat with our editor, Victoria James, sommelier and author shares her wine experience.

The wine industry is a large and well-known one. Sommeliers from across the globe have shared their experiences and insights on what it takes to be a sommelier and their journey in the industry.

Meet Victoria James - wine prodigy, sommelier, wine author, beverage director at Piora and Cote restaurants, and social media’s favorite wine girl.

James sat with Editor of USA Wine Ratings and shared her journey in the world of wine and shared her tips for anyone looking to enter the wine industry.

Tell us about your journey as a sommelier & What inspired you to become a sommelier?

I started working at a local greasy-spoon at age thirteen and from there fell in love with the culture of restaurants. I found that serving others, and bringing them joy, made me happy. Throughout college, I continued to waitress, then bartend. This is where I fell into the world of wine, and everything just clicked. I already had a passion for history, geography, travel, food, and people. The wine was just this missing link that tied them all together. Being a sommelier allows me to use wine as a tool in hospitality, and that's what I really love.

Tell us a little about the people you’ve met along the way. How have they helped and mentored you?

I've been very fortunate that a lot of people have helped me along the way. The owner of Cote, Simon Kim, was one of the first persons who ever believed in me and gave me a chance. He hired me as his Wine Director at Piora, his first restaurant, even though I had no experience before as a buyer. He took me from a sommelier and showed me how to successfully buy for a Michelin-starred restaurant by giving me the tools of sessions with our accountant and advice on how to treat those in the industry. Most importantly, he gave me support, trust, and kindness.

Also, I've had a lot of fantastic female mentors--- Rita Jammet who took me under her wing and sponsored me to become a Dame with the Les Dames d'Escoffier. She also has helped give me so many opportunities and always is a beacon of light and joy in sometimes a dark world. Aileen Robbins was one of the first to offer me an international trip via the recommendation of one of my other mentors, Marianne Fabre-Lanvin. Aileen and I remained friends over the years and she continued to support and encourage me throughout my career, often offering candid and hard advice I needed to hear. When I was working on my second book, a memoir that was very emotionally devastating to write, she helped me edit and spent hours working on the manuscript with me.

Marianne likewise became a friend in addition to someone I continue to look up to with her joie de vivre and ability to make everything feel limitless. My mentors are so important to me because not only have they all been brilliant and supportive but most importantly, they are good people that encourage me to continue to be the same.

Tell us about your journey from a sommelier to a beverage director and wine author

Pre-Cote, I was working as a sommelier at two different restaurants—Aureole and Marea—and I met the owner of Cote, Simon Kim, at Piora in the West Village. As a sommelier, you're selling wine, but that's only part of the industry. If you really want to have power and if you want to vote with your dollars, you have to be a buyer. Take, for example, being a buyer at Bloomingdales—you are purchasing a product and managing inventory, figuring out what the trends are, doing customer research, et cetera. You're meeting with vendors, suppliers, distributors, and putting together a list of products. That is what being a wine director means. And now I have a multi-million dollar program, which is crazy. It's a lot of money, and that means a lot of buying power.

I wanted that power, and to delve more deeply into the industry, so Simon hired me as his wine director buying wine for Piora (his restaurant in the West Village) and then we opened up Cote together, along with a great team. Opening a restaurant is one of the most difficult things ever—not only is it difficult because it's time-consuming and incredibly emotional, but it's almost like opening a play. You have no idea how it will be received and you could easily lose millions of dollars. We were very lucky that our concept was well-received and we are doing well, but that was a big fear.

I am also an author, and as you can probably imagine writing is time-consuming. I try to do it in the early mornings, late at night, or on the weekends. You just have to carve out time for it, and that applies to anyone who wants to do something in addition to their day job. For example, with my second book, "Wine Girl: The Obstacles, Humiliations, and Triumphs of America's Youngest Sommelier" (Out March 2020 by Ecco), I calculated how long it would take to write over the course of five years, which meant that it would take about two hours a day of work, so I would wake up two hours earlier. It just is what it is, and the other secret is sometimes giving up your social life.

This article was originally published on USA WINE RATINGS .