Next thing to shake up the restaurant business? Female sommeliers
Skift Take
There’s much discussion of tourism as one of the world’s largest employers, but a closer glance indicates the same prejudices and boundaries that exist elsewhere are waiting to be overcome by women in tourism.
Not long ago sommeliers fell into two stereotypes: the overbearing yet aloof Frenchman, and the overly effusive American uttering “killer cabernet” and “awesome viognier.”
Thankfully, times are changing, as more and more women are stepping into what was overwhelming a male domain. Women are now even being found in European cellars.
At Le Meurice in Paris the sommelier is Estelle Touzet; Milan’s Principe di Savoia has Alessandra Veronesi; and at Wolfgang Puck’s CUT steakhouse in London, Vanessa Cinti pulls the corks.
Of the prestigious Institute of Masters of Wine group based in London, there are now 87 women among the 287 worldwide masters living in 23 countries. In both 2011 and 2012, there were more new female Masters of Wine than male.
In the U.S. the number of women sommeliers has increased dramatically. Maeve Pesquera, 40, wine director for the 65 branches of Fleming
