Ahead of New Year celebrations, know your wines right from French sommelier Julie Ollier

Julie, passionate about wines along with their production and plantation, has travelled extensively to countries like Portugal, England, Italy, Spain, Romania and more, to learn and teach about wines.
Julie Ollier at a wine tasting event at AltAir
Julie Ollier at a wine tasting event at AltAir

The 25-year-old French Sommelier, Julie Ollier, who loves skiing, when she is not tasting wine, was here in town for a few wine-tasting events. Staying in India for wine tasting and pairing events, she is a sommelier, wine merchant and wine and winemaker, at the same time. Julie, really passionate about wines along with their production and plantation, has travelled extensively to countries like Portugal, England, Italy, Spain, Romania, and Hungary, to learn and teach about wines.

After a few months in the city, Julie is constantly learning new words in Bengali, which her chauffeur is cordially teaching her. She loves the spicy phuchka, jhalmuri, and Darjeeling tea, a speciality of the city. When asked as to why she took up this profession, she said, “I grew up watching wine everywhere around, people drinking it, talking about it and appreciating it since I was a little girl. That’s when I decided to take up a profession that lets me do the same,” said Julie. 

Talking about wine and how to appreciate it, Jullie said, “There are three steps to appreciate the wine tasting: sight, smell and touch (in the mouth). One has to observe the colour and the reflections on the wine. For example, the green reflection of white wine reflects their youth. If the red wine has a brown colour, it is very old. 

It must smell a lot of different aromas and some are indicative of the grape…black pepper for Shiraz, blackcurrant for Cabernet-Sauvignon, strawberry for Gamay.

“In the mouth, a glass of good wine is a balanced wine, with a balance between different elements, the sugar, acidity, and tannins. And those aromas give out the most important information. For example, while the coconut aromas come from the use of American oak barrels during ageing, the vanilla aromas are from French oak,” she adds.

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