FOR ONE OF CANADA’S TOP SOMMELIERS, SUCCESS IS ABOUT SKILL – NOT GENDER
Elyse Lambert fell in love with wine while studying at the Quebec Tourism and Hotel Institute in the late ’90s. “It touched so many things I care about – from travel, to food, to discovering new people,” she says. “Wine is always in motion, so you never finish learning. When I put my nose in the glass and discovered that universe, I just loved it.”
Today, Lambert is one of only 236 people in the world to hold the prestigious Master Sommelier title – the fourth Canadian and the first Quebecer to earn the international honour. She has won numerous awards, including Best Sommelier in Quebec 2004, third best Canadian sommelier in 2006 and Best Sommelier of the Americas, awarded in Buenos Aires in 2009. She took Canada’s Best Sommelier honours again in 2015, and was ranked among the Top 5 sommeliers in the world at the Decanter World Wine Awards the following year.
Lambert landed her first sommelier job shortly after securing a certificate of professional specialization in sommellerie from the École Hôtelière des Laurentides in 1999. “At the time, it was very trendy to have a woman sommelier, but we were not many,” says Lambert. “I would often arrive at the table and have people ask to see the sommelier before realizing I was it!”
Lambert took the fact that people were not expecting a woman as a challenge to do better. “It was very important that I was attentive as possible, creating great wine lists, making sure they would be happy with their wine and know that I was there to take good care of them,” she says.
Today, Lambert splits her time between being a consultant sommelier and writing a column for Radio Canada and the Journal de Montréal. “I am so in love with what I am doing,” she says. “Even more than when I started.”
She’s also gratified to see more women joining the industry (there was an unprecedented three women in the Top 5 at the World Wine Awards the year she placed), but she maintains it’s about skill, not gender.
“We are achieving a nice gender balance in our industry, but most importantly we must ensure we maintain that trust our customers place in us to look after them. We need to focus on quality, competence and personality. That’s not a man or a woman. It’s a person.”
WE ARE ACHIEVING A NICE GENDER BALANCE IN OUR INDUSTRY