Wine Girl by Victoria James

Author:Victoria James
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: HarperCollins
Published: 2020-01-09T00:00:00+00:00

Wine Is a Blood Sport

IN ADDITION TO WORKING EIGHTY-PLUS hours a week, I also continued taking classes at the Wine School. By now I had memorized all of the 585 premier crus of Burgundy, their historical origins, and their land delineations. All of the 61 Médoc châteaux mentioned in the 1855 classification of Bordeaux, and the 26 Sauternes châteaux, were now old hat.

Every week in the WS class, we had a quiz (though no one else took it quite as seriously as I did). I always arrived fifteen minutes early. One week, I was running behind because of train delays. I sprinted a mile through the sweaty New York streets, my wineglasses clinking in their bag, and arrived two minutes before the quiz began.

I held myself to an unusually high standard. A score below 95 percent only happened once. I could hear my father’s words in my head—You will never excel like this. The region we were focusing on was particularly challenging because of its expansive size and constant changes in regulations and categories. The Languedoc-Roussillon is in the South of France just west of Provence. Known as the world’s largest wine region, the Languedoc is plagued by swaths of bulk wine production and a slew of confusing classifications.

We had one week to learn about the Languedoc and all of its intricacies. Imagine having to memorize the complete history of a region about the size of Hawaii—each city, how many people lived in each town, the significant resources of each village, the microclimates, the soil types by city, the average temperature in each area by month, etc. I furiously dedicated myself to textbooks and flash cards, but it all seemed too scattered to stick. On the quiz, I received not only below 95 percent but a fail—a fail.

After class, with my tail between my legs, I talked to the instructor. I apologized about my quiz grade. It would never happen again, I promised. “Is there any way,” I began nervously, “you would let me retake it?” I even offered to write a report instead of the quiz, something lengthy and punishing.

The instructor smiled. “There is one thing you can do, and if you do it well . . . I will give you a pass on that quiz.” Please don’t ask for anything sexual, was all I could think.

EVERY YEAR A COMPETITION is held called the Sud de France Sommelier Challenge. The instructor wanted me to enroll. I was absolutely terrified. Up until now, I had flown under the radar in the sommelier community. I kept to myself and worked tirelessly at a restaurant mostly tourists and old people visited. I had no friends in the industry, and when I was around other sommeliers at tastings I made sure not to speak or make eye contact. The competition would ruin everything. Suddenly, I would be flung into the spotlight and would surely humiliate myself in front of everyone.

“Competing shows your peers that you have balls,” the instructor said, trying to convince me.

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