I was born and raised in Vancouver, BC. My parents immigrated from Italy in the 50's and I grew up speaking Italian and travelling often to Italy to visit family. I even attended Saturday morning Italian classes. Trust me, at 16, that was not exactly how I wanted to be spending my time. But, mother did know best and it really paid off.
In 2003 I threw caution to the wind and moved to Italy. Even though I had spent a fair amount of time there as a child and was fluent in Italian, adjusting to living there had it's challenges. From time to time, I will post about those times as there were some funny experiences. But for now, it's about the wine.
In the fall of 2003 I saw an ad for a sommelier course. As I already had an interest in wine I thought this was a good idea. Not only would I learn something but I could meet people with similar interests. It was very challenging taking a course in my second language and I was fortunate to have the ability to dedicate myself full-time to my studies. In May 2005 I became a sommelier.
In Italy there are 2 sommelier societies, FISAR and AIS. I am a FISAR sommelier. Each year each society holds a competition to crown a Sommlier of the Year. Last October, I competed in FISAR's competition. There were 8 of us in the competition and I was the only woman. Not to mention, the only one that wasn't a native Italian speaker. There were 3 parts to the competition and it took place over 2 days. Day 1 was the written exam with the practical and oral exams on day 2. On that second day, you performed before a panel of 5 judges with each judge asking you 2 questions in a specific topic. For example, one judge asked about wine/food pairing, while another asked questions about Italian wine regions. At the end of Day 1, I was told I had scored the highest on the written exam so I felt pretty confident going into Day 2. Not only are you performing before a judging panel, but it's open to all the members attending so it's extra nerve racking. I had studied quite hard for this competition and that hard work paid off when I was crowned Sommelier of the Year 2007.
I will be honest, there were a few people (men) not too happy about it but I scored so much higher than everyone else they had no choice but to award it to me. I don't know if they were bitter because I was a woman, or a Canadian or because they didn't like my chapter club president. They never did give me the respect I deserved but so be it.
So here I am today sharing my knowledge and experience with you.
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