Sommelier of the Year 2018: Jill Spoor

As wine director for the city's Fairmont hotels, Jill Spoor has immeasurable influence over how we interact with wine.

As wine director for the city’s Fairmont hotels, Jill Spoor has immeasurable influence over how we interact with wine.

If you’ve ever had a taste of Tavel at the Empress, tried a glass of 2010 Bordeaux at the Hotel Vancouver, or thrown back a quick splash of Siduri pinot from Oregon at the Fairmont Vancouver Airport before a flight, then you’ve tasted Jill Spoor’s influence. If you’ve gone to Botanist for a special occasion and splurged on a bottle of Raphaël et Vincent Bérêche Brut Réserve or any other of her selection of impossible-to-source grower Champagnes, then you’ve tasted her passion. In this city that fetishizes the small-scale, hand-selling sommelier, Spoor is an anomaly—a wine professional who’s able to combine a wine nerd’s love of all things esoteric (don’t get her started on her former stomping grounds in Northern Italy) with a position as wine director for the region’s Fairmonts that allows her immeasurable influence over how vast swaths of locals and visitors interact with wine in the city.

Restaurant Awards 2018 ▸▸▸