My life as a personal wine consultant

It isn’t a job you’ll see advertised, so what does it take to become one? Right place, right time? Experience, qualifications, hard work, connections? All of those and more, it turns out

- CHARLES CURTIS MW

Tongue firmly in cheek, I sometimes define ‘wine consultant’ as ‘someone lacking employment who will work for whoever pays them’. Although meant in jest, the implied question is valid: just what does a wine consultant do? More importantly, in this age, when every assistant in a retail shop styles him- or herself a sales consultant, who would hire one?

The short answer is this: a wine consultant is someone who advises wine lovers about their passion. He or she advises buyers on what to buy (and at what price, and from whom); and advises sellers on how and where to sell in order to realise the best return. It involves inspecting a collector’s purchases and advising on issues of condition, provenance and authenticity; and advising on storing, shipping, insuring and, eventually, on serving and enjoying one’s purchases.

If I did not begin my working life at 17 with the ambition to become a wine consultant, it was solely due to a lack of imagination. I loved food and cooking, and started out as a chef, which took me to Paris in 1981 and the Le Cordon Bleu culinary school. Back in the States from 1994, I began a career in the wine trade that included seven years in wholesale, a further seven at Moët Hennessy USA, and four as head of department at Christie’s auction house.