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Wine Girl

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Wine Girl

By: Victoria James
Narrated by: Victoria James
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About this listen

An affecting memoir from America's youngest sommelier, tracing her path through the glamorous but famously toxic restaurant world.

At just 21, Victoria James became America's youngest sommelier at a Michelin-starred restaurant. Even as Victoria was selling bottles worth hundreds and thousands of dollars during the day, passing sommelier certification exams with flying colors and receiving distinction from all kinds of press, there were still groping patrons, bosses who abused their role and status, and a trip to the hospital emergency room.

It would take hitting bottom at a new restaurant and restorative trips to the vineyards where she could feel closest to the wine she loved for Victoria to re-emerge, clear-eyed and passionate, and a proud 'wine girl' of her own Michelin-starred restaurant.

Exhilarating and inspiring, Wine Girl is the memoir of a young woman breaking free from an abusive and traumatic childhood on her own terms, an ethnography of the glittering, high-octane, but notoriously corrosive restaurant industry, and above all, a love letter to the restorative and life-changing effects of good wine and good hospitality.

©2020 Victoria James (P)2020 Hachette Audio UK Food & Wine Wine & Beverages Women Wine Restaurant

Critic Reviews

Hugely entertaining (Jay Rayner)
Don't read this book without wine to hand. I glugged at the gossipy bits, sipped at the sad parts . . . In Wine Girl James spills all on Manhattan's fine-dining world . . . you'll raise a glass to her extraordinary resilience (Laura Pullman)
A brilliantly Bourdain-ish tale of a young woman making her way through the sexist American fine-dining world. A glass of rich white burgundy, such as Christophe Cordier's, will enhance the experience of the chapter in which James deals hilariously with a chauvinistic mansplainer and a bottle of super-expensive white burgundy (David Williams)
This affecting, informative memoir is crucial reading for wine lovers, food lovers, and anyone thinking about making their way in the rough-and-tumble world of big-time restaurants (Adam Platt, New York Magazine restaurant critic)

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Profile Image for Nicholas J C

An emotional read

I bought this book as I have a daughter that will be studying winemaking next year. The authors personal account is heartbreaking at times and delightful at others. I was shocked at the extent of sexual harassment and that was educational. Perhaps the thing I like most about the book as the sense of wine and the personal journey.

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