Julie Dupouy, Sommelier

Julie has a very impressive resume. She is a freelance Sommelier, co-creator of SommNinja Educational mobile application, EXSTO Cognac Consultant, Deputy Secretary General of the International Sommelier Association (ASI) and President of the Irish Guild of Sommeliers. Sommeliers stock the wine cellars in restaurants and advise customers on wine choices and food pairings. The profession originated in France where the world’s first union for sommeliers was founded in 1907. Getting to the top of your game in this career is almost ludicrously hard – the pass rate for the test held by the international examining body, the Court of Master Sommeliers, is between 3 and 8%, and there are only 236 master sommeliers worldwide, of whom just 32 are women. Julie Dupouy is a trailblazer: the first woman to reach the final of the Association de la Sommellerie (ASI) world championships in 2016, where she came third. In this competition, held every three years, contestants go through rigorous tests, including blind tastings and matching drinks to various menus. Dupouy, who works in the Greenhouse Restaurant in Dublin, describes herself as fascinated by aromas – “I originally wanted to work in the perfume industry; then on my 16th birthday my granddad opened a bottle of wine of my year of birth and I was amazed by the fact that wine could age like this and could be so unique aromatically.”

Photo: Beta Bajgart