#121 Sarah Heller: Master of Wine Explains Why You Need Specialization in Wine

You’re learning about wine, so you memorize soil names like galestro without ever learning what galestro actually does to a wine, and you wonder why your tasting notes, your wine list descriptions, your Instagram captions, and your staff trainings all sound like everybody else's. Sarah Heller MW passed the hardest wine exam on earth at the youngest age anyone ever has, and she'll tell you plainly that it didn't solve the problem: nothing is a silver bullet. The fix wasn't more breadth. It was specialization, and it was learning that being a wine person first and a communicator second is exactly why most wine content dies on arrival. This episode is about Italian wine, wine education, wine writing, and the Asian market. However,underneath all of it, it's about the difference between accumulating information and actually having something to say.

Expect to Learn:

• The accident that ended her winemaking ambitions and accidentally built her entire career

• The reason the 100-point system has stopped meaning anything
• What separates wine writing worth reading from the producer/barrels/dog story you've read a thousand times
• Why she stopped chasing breadth after the MW, and what she chased instead

Links:

• ⁠Sarah Heller MW⁠
• ⁠Vinitaly International Academy⁠
• ⁠5StarWines⁠
• ⁠Club Oenologique⁠
• ⁠Gambero Rosso: Sarah's column⁠ (Italian)

Service starts now.

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I talk to people in and around the service industry space. I'm looking to hear from the people I wish I could have talked to when I was coming up in bars. Said another way: I am trying to make sense of this wild, beautiful mess that can be a life working in bars, and help others that are feeling similarly confused and/or lost. Check out the Podcast Website ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Here⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ and get in touch with me!

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As always, I’m just here taking notes, trying to figure out what it all means.

Cheers