Wine for Dummies may not be an auspicious start for a beverage director, but when she became a bartender at 18, Victoria James picked up a “dusty old copy” of the book. She was lured by the history, stories, and tradition of the world. “This book led to another, which led to another, which led to a class,” Victoria says. “That class became two and before I knew it, I was a cellar rat, then harvest intern and finally a sommelier. Curiosity is a dangerous and beautiful thing.”
After becoming a sommelier at 21, she worked in various Michelin-starred restaurants in New York, including Aureole and Marea. She was on Zagat’s “30 Under 30” list and one of Food & Wine’s 2018 Sommeliers of the Year.
In 2015—at just 24—she became wine director at Simon Kim’s Piora. Two years later, she helped Simon open his Korean steakhouse—Cote (which has won many awards of its own), where she is currently the beverage director.
She also wrote Drink Pink: A Celebration of Rosé last year and is working on a second beverage book.
At 27, Victoria is one of the youngest—if not the youngest—female beverage directors at a Michelin-starred restaurant. And though she hasn’t been in the industry for long, she says she’s already seeing more female sommeliers than when she first started.