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.

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 ▸▸▸