Wine Girl cover art

Wine Girl

 Preview

Get 30 days of Premium Plus free

£8.99/month after 30-day free trial. Cancel monthly.
Try for £0.00
More purchase options
Buy Now for £12.99

Buy Now for £12.99

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 Gastronomy Wine & Beverages Women Memoir

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)
All stars
Most relevant
Fantastic book I have recommended to restauranteurs that also recommended to all there staff , her passion for wine is truly uplifting. Her being through such trauma in her early years it was sad to read but brave to be open about

Realist life of a women’s life in hospitality

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
This story is so shocking, amazing, humbling. Victoria is an incredible human being. I hope they make a film of this book. I have recommended it to SO many friends.

You will never be the same in a restaurant again.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
An interesting subject of book and I like the writing but the narration was so bad I couldn’t finish it. I found she would shout into the microphone with little variation in tone. It made the whole experience far less engaging and made sad, distressing or disturbing moments feel flat and less emotive.

Interesting read but couldn’t stand the performance

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.