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June 26, 2025 12 mins

This is a Vintage Selection from 2008

The Conversation

The Restaurant Guys talk with Aldo Sohm about what it took to be pronounced The Best Sommelier in the World. They talk about wine competitions, formal wine service and pairings –both the wine with food and, most importantly, the guest with wine . 

The Inside Track

The Guys have enjoyed Le Bernardin where Aldo is the sommelier. They all love the business they are in and Aldo states it simply.

“What is more beautiful than eating and drinking?” Aldo Sohm on The Restaurant Guys Podcast 2008 


Bio

Aldo Sohm earned the title “Best Sommelier in the World 2008,” Aldo oversees a 15,000 bottle wine collection at Le Bernardin and his namesake Aldo Sohm Wine Bar. He was awarded M. Chapoutier prize for the Best Sommelier of Les Grandes Tables du Monde in 2019 and Wine Spectator’s Grand Award for Le Bernardin's restaurant wine program in 2021.

Aldo released his first book Wine Simple in 2019. He is the ambassador for Zalto glassware by Denk'art, has designed his own signature Laguiole corkscrew. 

His has a TV series "An Austrian Wine Journey" ("Eine österreichische Weinreise").


Info

Aldo’s site

https://aldosohm.com/


Le Bernardin, NYC

https://www.le-bernardin.com/

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Mark as Played
Transcript

Episode Transcript

Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:57):
Hey Mark.
Hey Francis.
How are you this morning?

Mark (00:59):
I'm doing very, very well.
How are you?

Francis (01:01):
I'm, I'm well indeed.
I I'm, I'm glad to be back inthe, in the restaurant Kai Radio
chair.

Mark (01:06):
Yeah.
We took a little time off.
It was, uh, well deserved, Ithink.

Francis (01:09):
Yeah.
And we're gonna start today'sshow.
on Aldo.
So Aldo, so is the, sommelier LaBernadin restaurant with Eric
Repair, who's been on our show.
He's the chef owners EricRepair.
you know, being a fish chef,we've, you know, we've talked
with Rick Moon and one of theother great fish chefs in the
country, about how you cookfish.
It's a very delicate art and.
That's why very often yourmediocre cook is best doing as

(01:32):
little to fish as possible, andjust cooking, getting fresh fish
and leaving it alone.
That's not what Eric repairdoes.
He leaves this great fish tospeak and show you the quality
ingredients, but his food isvery inventive and interesting.
And we're gonna talk with hissommelier on Aldo.
So Aldo, so is just elected thisyear, the best sommelier in the
world.
should be a lot of fun.
We're gonna talk about how to,to pair great wines with great

(01:53):
fish.
and that is about the, thehighest.
Culinary Highwire Act you can,manage and we'll do that in just
a moment.
You're listening to theRestaurant guys Aldo, so was the
best American sommelier.
That's an official title, 2000and.
Seven.
He's the sommelier at Larna DanRestaurant with our friend Eric
Repair, who is the chef owner ofLarna Dan.
And he was also recently namedthe Best sommelier in the world

(02:14):
in May, 2008 at theInternational Association of
Sommelier's Competition in Rome.

Mark (02:20):
Aldo, welcome to the show.

Aldo (02:21):
Hello.
How are you?

Francis (02:22):
Well, you know, um.
Whenever you're considered thebest in the world at anything.
That's, that's a, that's apretty hefty title.
We're pretty honored to have youon the show.

Aldo (02:30):
Oh, thank you.
It's my pleasure.

Francis (02:31):
Now, talk to me about how you get to be the best
sommelier in the world.
What is the InternationalAssociation of Sommelier's
Competition?
I, I mean, I know what it is,obviously, but for our audience,
it's not exactly like, you know,I think there's a difference
between saying being Top Chef orIron Chef, which is sort of
geared for a televisionaudience.
Um, this isn't really geared fora television audience.
This is a, a, a recognition of,of view among professionals,

(02:55):
among your peers.

Aldo (02:56):
Uh, yes, it's very, uh, focused in Europe, especially,
uh, because in America Masters.
So education is a bigimportance.
Mm-hmm.
And it has also in the united,uh, in the United Kingdom, but
that's about it in CentralEurope, January.
Those competitions are prettybig and everyone spends a major
focus into that because, um,it's quite a hard, work to go

(03:19):
there.

Mark (03:19):
So.
So what's hard?
How, how are you being gradedwhile you're there?
Well,

Aldo (03:22):
most of the people think, you know, we, we recognize the
most wines, and that's the bestformula.
Uh, it will be too easy.
It's a written, it's writtensabout, uh, wine growing, uh, uh,
wine loss, uh, wine growingareas, villages, certain
vineyards, uh.
Vintages even about, uh, coffee,cigar teas, liquors

Francis (03:43):
now.
But is there a practicalcomponent to it as well?
Is there a service component toit or a blind tasting component?

Aldo (03:48):
That's one part of theoretical.
The practical part is to doingeven the wine service.

Francis (03:52):
Mm-hmm.

Aldo (03:53):
Uh, champagne service.
Uh, everything is in a timepressure.

Francis (03:56):
Now, how do you do this?
Do you do it, do you serve othersommelier in a mock dining room?

Aldo (04:00):
No, it's, uh, those are judges, independent judges,
Uhhuh, uh, where you have toserve.
Mm-hmm.

Francis (04:05):
And,

Aldo (04:05):
you know, they judge how you work.
Give you points.

Francis (04:08):
Well, now, You took the title of Best Sommelier in the
World, for America.
You competed on behalf of, youwere the American, entry into
that competition.
Well,

Aldo (04:15):
yeah, that's kind of Murphy's Law, you know, as you
hear from my accent, uh, I'm notfrom New Jersey, from Brooklyn.

Francis (04:22):
You stole my joke.
That's exactly how I was gonnaput it.
Um, yeah.
So, so tell us how you came torepresent America and tell you
how.
Tell us how you came to America.
You're, you're Austrian.
I'm

Aldo (04:32):
originally Austrian, yeah.
And I won actually, even inAustria, Western, in Austria
four times.
And that actually made me moveto United States because, um,
those competitions always heldin a foreign language that's
mandatory.
And I picked always, uh,English, but my English was not
good enough.
So, you know, there was nochoice, you know, either, you

(04:53):
know, resign.
From competing or doing betterand going a foreign country, you
know, to.
It fluent in the language.

Mark (05:01):
So in, in order to immerse yourself in the language, you
just decided to move here andbecome a sommelier here?

Aldo (05:05):
Uh, yes.
Uh, of course my best friendasked me if London wasn't far
enough London, and it got theright vibe.

Mark (05:13):
That's a pretty serious dedication though, Aldo I moved
to Europe, but I did it forthree months.
You know, it was, I, I didn'tmove my whole life or.
Five years to a different place.

Francis (05:22):
Well, I, I think this gives you a unique perspective.
I mean, as, I guess a lot offolks have, uh, a perspective of
coming across, going one way orthe other across the Atlantic.
But how, how is being asommelier different in the
United States than it is incentral Europe?

Aldo (05:37):
Um, it's different because you have, especially here in New
York, um, you know, the culinarybusiness works a little bit
different.
And it's also a little bit moreconcentrated, meaning you have
so many different cultures,altogether, which of course you
have to open your perspective alittle bit because you have to
know what's going on in, inJapanese cuisine.

(05:59):
Also, you have to know what'sgoing on in French and possibly
certain chefs, you know, combinethose flavors, which is even the
more challenging,

Francis (06:05):
well now you work for Eric, repair a French, uh, chef
cooking in America, butprobably, you know, one of the
most celebrated, or certainlyone of the most celebrated chefs
in America, former guest on ourshow.
do you specifically like workingin a, in a French environment?
Because I understand that beingin New York, you need to, uh, be
very aware of a lot of differentcuisines.
But actually, but working forEric Repair, do you need to be
aware of a lot of different,different ethnic cuisines?

Aldo (06:28):
Uh, yes, because he is a very, he has a very playful way
of cooking.
He uses a lot of differentflavors and very delicate
flavors.
And his fish, he cooks it alwaysin a very light way.
Which is for me once in a while,a little tricky, you know, in
order to don't overwhelm withthe wine, the food,

Speaker 3 (06:45):
Uhhuh,

Aldo (06:46):
Uhhuh, and rather a marry dose

Francis (06:48):
now, you know, being the best sommelier in the world.
One of the things that I thinkpeople assume, and that is
certainly true, is that ifyou're the best sommelier in the
world, you are the guy.
Um, who, if someone is gonnaspend a lot of money on wine, or
someone's very knowledgeableabout wine, they really want to
go to you because you know youare the expert in the field.
You can, you can bring people anovel adventure, but I know that

(07:10):
you believe as well that thesommelier has a great duty to
someone who's a novice in wineor someone who may not know very
much about wine at all.
What, talk to us about that andhow telling

Aldo (07:18):
the truth.
That's for me, uh, I have morefun doing that.
Than the other.
Mm-hmm.
Because what is for me is alwayson the end of the day, nothing
is more pleasurable than you seesomeone coming in at Berda,
possibly for the first time.
You see that right away.
They feel uncomfortable and theyfeel nervous.

(07:40):
And when they open a big winelist, then, you know, then it's
over.

Mark (07:43):
It can be very, listen, we, we have a pretty big wine
list in, in our restaurants andit's intimidating for people.
It's intimidating though.
You, you, you need to dosomething to allay their fears.

Aldo (07:51):
But nothing is more fun, you know, to make these people
feel comfortable right from thefirst second when you go there
and tell them, look, uh, it'snot a problem at all.
I'll find the right wine for youin even a comfortable price
range, whatever it is.

Francis (08:06):
You know what's funny?
I sort of have a standard jokeand when you're a respiratory,
you can, you can run with thesame joke for like a couple of
weeks because.
Then you start to get people whocome back a second time and you
can't tell that joke again, butyou've got a couple of weeks,
you got a whole bunch of newpeople to say, my, my recently,
I've been going into people and,and I'll say as they open the
wine list, I'll say, um, hi, howare you?
I, I just like to introducemyself.
I'm the, I'm the residentalcoholic.
I've tasted every bottle on thatlist, but I have a great memory.

(08:27):
I.
And I'm highly functional so Ican, you know, help you select a
bottle of wine.
And it's, I'm sort of makinglight of why, why I am there.
But it's, it's a very differentperception of the, than the
sommelier of, say, 25 years ago,who was this sort of imposing
figure who took an imposing winelist and made it more imposing.

Aldo (08:44):
Well, you know, when you work in a, in a four star
restaurant, you know, you still,especially here at Laborda, a
little bit more conservativefocused.
So in order to make that thatjoke, you know, it's kind of,
for me, very, very tough to dothat.

Francis (08:58):
Oh, I wasn't recommending it for you at all.
And in fact, and in fact if I'dheard you'd stolen it, I'd have
written you an nasty email.
Thanks my joke.
But the point, but my point isthat, you know, we've, mark and
I have dined at La Bernadettefor lunch a couple of times,
and, and your staff is sogracious.
but the contemporary sommelier,although it's a, it's a mouthful

(09:19):
of a word for a lot of Americansto say that the role is to be
sort of, the wine sommelier isthe wine waiter, right?
But it's to be the guy who comesover and, and removes any sense
of intimidation and adds a senseof fun and adventure and,
removes the fear

Mark (09:32):
from one, i I think for a lot of.
Customers who come intorestaurants.
I think that the wine list isthe most intimidating part of
the meal when you go to, to, toa really upscale restaurant.
I think a lot of people, that'sthe part, you know, a lot of
people will see foods theyrecognize, and you can always
skip over if there's one foodyou don't recognize or another.
But that wine list can bedaunting.

(09:52):
And, and I think that the, therole of the sommelier is even a
greater one than it, than it was25 years ago.

Aldo (09:59):
Yeah.
Absolutely.
And, but people, you will besurprised.
People know very well aboutwines and they have special
interests.
You know.

Francis (10:09):
Do, do you, do you find that you occasionally get, uh,
you know, a very knowledgeableguest who his goal is just to
sort of trip you up or quiz youon your knowledge

Mark (10:18):
to stump,

Francis (10:18):
to

Mark (10:18):
stump

Francis (10:19):
the chance, the sommelier.
Do you find that happens at all?

Aldo (10:22):
Well, it happens, but you know.
You have to be cool about that.
You know, if someone wants toknow about something, uh, I feel
more than comfortable to answerthat.
If someone doesn't, you know, Ihave no problem to keep that for
myself.
Yeah.
I don't have to show off, youknow.

Francis (10:37):
But I wanna talk with you Aldo, about Austrian wine.
One of the first guests we hadon our show and our show's about
three years old now, so about475 shows ago.
Um.
Uh, our friend Peter Schlemer,was, was one of the first guests
on the show.
Yeah.
Do you know Schlemer?
Yeah.
He's, he, the, the laughter isthat we all know Schlemer crazy
man, friend of ours, uh,advocate of Austrian wines, and,

(11:00):
and one of our first shows wasabout Austrian wine.
And at that time, you know, the,the Austrian wine,
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