Working in the wine business may sound glamorous, but not so much when you’re working as a “cellar rat.”
That’s what Kaitlyn Caruke found herself doing shortly after graduating from the University of Vermont with a Nutrition and Food Science degree in 2012. After moving to New York City and working in a Brooklyn restaurant, she started to develop an interest in “wine science, wine culture and wine restaurants.” Within the year, she found herself as a—you guessed it—“cellar rat,” as an intern at the late Pearl & Ash.
“I, along with a couple other interns, were in charge of making space, receiving, categorizing and memorizing an unfathomable amount of wine,” Kaitlyn tells Grok Nation. “That cellar was home.”
When the restaurant’s sommelier Patrick Cappiello helped open Rebelle, he asked Kaitlyn to work as a floor sommelier. But it was in 2017 that she made a big move: to Philadelphia. Kaitlyn helped Patrick open Walnut Street Café, where she currently serves as head sommelier. Her biggest role is overseeing the wine program, which focuses on organic and sustainable wines that lean toward French and American.
Learn more about Caruke’s Wine of the Week selection at groknation.com.