Expert to lecture on pairing wine with food

Wine sommelier Joshua Wesson

Monday,  February 27, 2006

PAIRING wine with food is an art, so the Department of Tourism (DOT) welcomes back wine sommelier, Joshua Wesson, for its 2 to 5 March Cayman Classic.

The wine tasting expert’s encore appearance on the Island is expected to add flavour to sumptuous dinners prepared by local and international chefs in the four-day tourist event. 

While here, Mr Wesson will host a series of wine seminars on pairing wine with cheese, and how to match wine with everything from jerk chicken to fisherman’s pie.

He said no natural talent is required to be a successful sommelier, wine critic or retailer. 

“All you need to succeed is a nose, a tongue and some room on your mental hard drive to record what you like and dislike and why,” he said. 

“My parents loved to eat, and instilled in me a passion for both food and wine,” said Mr Wesson. “I ended up turning a fancy into a life’s pursuit of pleasure.”

Mr Wesson will be visiting the Cayman Islands for the third time and is “looking forward to being charmed yet again.” 

Best-known as the co-founder and Wine Director of Best Cellars, Inc., Mr Wesson enjoyed a long and successful career in the food and wine industry prior to founding the company in 1996. 

In 1984, he won the title of Best French Wine Sommelier in the United States. 

Two years later, he represented the US in an international competition in France where he was named one of the top five sommeliers in the world by Sopexa. 

He was nominated for the Who’s Who in American Cooking in 1989. Eight years later, Food & Wine magazine named him the Retail Wine Innovator of the Year. 

The US resident is a leading authority on the pairing of wine and food and he writes for numerous magazines.

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