Meet Brianne Cohen: Sommelier & Wine Educator
This interview has been edited for clarity and was featured in the March 8, 2023 issue of Merobebe.
Brianne Cohen
My name is Brianne Cohen, and I'm a Los Angeles based certified sommelier and wine educator. I offer both virtual and in-person tasting experiences for my corporate clients and I do this through highlighting diverse-owned wineries – So BIPOC, LGBT and female-owned. I also am a certified women-owned business.
Merobebe
What first inspired you to work in the wine industry and, more specifically, become an educator?
Brianne Cohen
It's kind of like everyone – I loved it and I couldn't get away. Wine certifications, as I say, are like Pringles. Once you pop, you can't stop. You think, oh, I'm just going to do this one. And then all of a sudden you want to do the next one and then the next one!
I did the WSET Level 2 and 3 just for fun as a wine enthusiast. When I saw how much commitment the WSET Level 4 was, which is the diploma certificate, I was like, Woah, that's a lot. I don't know if I'm going to do all that. I took a year off, then I came back and made the decision that I wanted to do the diploma certificate. I wanted to learn a lot more about wine. The intention was that I was going to do this three year certification that was quite challenging, and somehow integrate it into my business because I am an event producer by trade. I've been producing events in the LGBT nonprofit space for about 15 years. That's my day job, some will say, but it's all related now. I've been doing that for a really long time so I thought this is going to be the point where I'm finally going to integrate wine into my business.
I was writing a wine blog documenting my experience of [getting] the diploma so it got me into that mode of talking about wine and putting thoughts on paper. I was never a journalist, I didn’t study journalism. I was just putting my thoughts and feelings on paper as I was taking the diploma.
And what I learned is that my secret sauce and what I love to do is to talk to regular, everyday wine consumers. Regular people that love wine. I love just breaking bread and enjoying good juice with people around me.Being in a room with wine industry people and educators is also fun and geeky and that's great. But I really like to be around people just talking about wine, and that's when I realized that I had an ability to talk about wine in a really fun, relatable, and approachable way. That's what really inspired me to get into the business and to start doing wine education for my clients.
Merobebe
Why do you think traditional wine education can be so overwhelming and confusing, and how have you changed your approach to make wine education more approachable?
Brianne Cohen
It is overwhelming and it's confusing – and we're talking about something that people are hypothetically enjoying for fun! It shouldn't be overwhelming and confusing. It should be enjoyable, exciting, and dynamic.
So why is it like that? There's just so much information! There's where the grapes grow, and the soils, and the climate, and the terroir, and tasting notes. And then there's all these rules, like how to open a bottle of wine, how to store a bottle of wine, what glass should you use? What should you eat while you're drinking? It's just a lot of information.
I realized quickly that as an educator – I don't love that term because the people that I am educating or speaking to aren’t pupils or students, they're just regular people drinking wine that want to know a little bit more. I don't frame it in terms of modules or that we're going to learn how to do all these things. It’s about breaking bread, pulling the great wines out, and letting people enjoy and find out where they are in their journey.
I do so many tasting experiences and curate lovely wines from amazing wineries that have great stories. There's plenty of times when I go into an event or a class and they're enjoying the wines, but they have a laundry list of questions because they're overwhelmed and confused. They’ll ask me to break down how to open a bottle of wine, or write down my favorite grocery store wine while they’re enjoying the [tasting]. So I don't always get to delve into the stories of the wines I have in front of me, and that's okay! I think [wine is] such a rigidly structured industry that we have to just chill, relax, and just realize if someone has wine in their glass, they're on our side. You don't have to sit there and sell this wine.
And the difference between doing a wine tasting experience with myself versus a winemaker or a winery owner is that we can do that. We can just have fun. I don't need to sit there and hock my wine and tell you about élevage and all these things that you probably don't care about. They want to hear about the winery dog. They want to know the fun things that bring it to life.
Wine is really just this liquid in a glass. It's pretty boring. It's not that exciting. We have to bring it to life, and I don't think you bring it to life with just tasting notes on a grid and soil structure. I think you have to bring it to life by real life. Like what does it remind you of, what movie do you want to watch with this wine, what does it make you think about?
Merobebe
I think the tasting part is of course the fun part, but also where people get intimidated. I’ve been to lots of tastings where people are asked what they smell and it’s just silent. But there's no wrong answer, because it’s about your personal sense of smell and memories!
I remember someone once said the wine reminded them of “freshly cut garden hose.” I have no idea what that smells like, but I loved that!
Brianne Cohen
Yeah, totally. That's the most important part. I always say when I'm talking to people who are just getting started in their wine education that it's really about stepping off of that tasting sheet, off of that grid, and into the real world. That's important – not for everyone, for the record. Some people don't care. If I have a tasting sheet, I would start my tastings by holding up the sheet and saying, You have this in front of you. You can totally refer to it. You can take all your notes, you can circle, you can cross out, you can also crumble it up and throw it across the room, and you will have a total, complete, lovely experience because it's about enjoying the wine.
Everyone's palate is subjective. When we give this black and white [tasting] sheet, it can be confusing. Here's this sheet with all these tasting notes, plums and cherries and lemons and limes, but we're also at the same time telling you that your palate is yours and everyone's is different. So are everyone's reference points. So you're like, I've never cut a garden hose.
My family is from Argentina. We have things that are specific to our culture. There's no reason we can't integrate those into our tastings and what we're sharing. And it'll start a conversation because someone's going to go, Oh, I don't know what that smells or tastes like, what is it like? And then you can get into it from there.
We say certain things in the wine world and we constantly repeat it. Earthiness – I don't know why we don't just call it dirt. That's what we're talking about. When I'm doing classes, I say earthiness or I say fallen leaves – not leaves on the tree, but fallen leaves. These are terms that we say in the wine world. And I am all up in that wine world but I sit there and I'm like, we sound crazy. Like, that sounds wild. People who garden, they know what that smells like. They know when they open the bag of soil that they bought at Home Depot and they have their gardening gloves on and they put their hand in that bag and smell that soil. But we use these other terms and all of a sudden it creates a distance from people that don't know what they mean.
Merobebe
What do you think are some of the best ways to start or continue to develop your palate and learn what you like so you can better describe it to the sommelier at a restaurant?
Brianne Cohen
Wine classes are really a ton of fun because so many more people in the industry look and talk like you and I. It's a little different and a little more relaxed now. We're trying to be welcoming to everyone. I always tell people, wine class might sound scary, but maybe your local wine shop has some wine tastings. That's a great way to learn a little bit more.
If that doesn't speak to you and you're like, I'm never going to take a class, I just want to learn a little bit more about wine – I want to learn, like you said, how to tell the somm at the restaurant what I want. I have a couple tips that are going to help you drink better and up your wine game, whatever that means to you.
Number one, you can step out of the grocery store and step into your wine shop. There's great stuff at the grocery store and we all shop at the grocery store, so it's super convenient. I get it. I sometimes buy wine at the grocery store – I'm not one of those somms who's like, There's only trash at the grocery store. That's not true. They're lying to you. It's just that at the grocery store, you are only exposed to mass produced, commercial wines that are a little homogenous. A lot of them taste very similar, so you're not going to get as much discovery in the grocery store. You won't be learning as much. Stepping out of the grocery store or big box wine retailer and into your local wine shop is super helpful because someone's going to walk up to you and say, What can I help you with? How much are you looking to spend? It's going to help you get closer to finding wine that knocks your socks off and that's the goal.
Say you’re a sauvignon blanc person. The person at the wine shop might say, have you ever tried Vinho Verde from Portugal? It’s the same price, sometimes cheaper. You're going to get that zippiness, the acidity, the freshness, the liveliness that you like from sauvignon blanc. Then, the next time you’re sitting at a restaurant and they hand you the wine list, instead of being anxious, you can ask if they have any Vinho Verde because you just tried that and really liked it. That's going to give that somm so many clues – what you like, what style you like. And if they don't have one, they're going to be able to recommend something else for you. That's super helpful.
The other thing is to keep that sense of exploration and discovery. When I was studying for all the certifications, I made it a goal to not drink the same wine twice if I could help it. Kim Crawford Sauvignon Blanc ends up in your hand more often than not – it’s just going to happen. But if I had a wine list put in front of me, I'm trying to find the grape I’ve never had, maybe the region or a producer I've never had so that every time you're tasting wine, you have that sense of exploration and discovery. You can learn so much and go, Oh, I just tried something different that I like. It's all about that exploration in the journey of wine.
Merobebe
You really could go and never drink the same wine twice because there are so many varietals in so many different regions!
Brianne Cohen
Totally. And you can't get obsessed with the wine, unless it's like the Kim Crawford that you can find easily. What happens is that people go to wine country and they go wine tasting at these small, boutique family wineries. When they get home, they walk into Total Wine or their grocery store and they're like, Do you have this? But those wines are not sold anywhere except at the wineries. You have to let go of that attachment to wines – unless you want to become a wine club member and all that. It's about going back to that discovery – Okay, that was great. That was lovely. What's going to be the next thing I'm going to discover?
Merobebe
Are there certain questions you get asked often at tastings, and have you found differences with in-person or virtual tastings?
Brianne Cohen
I generally work with corporate clients so it's a little different because you already have a different group of people. Either way, you're going to get the people who are super stoked because it's wine. Everyone's happy, no one's in a bad mood, right? There's wine, they're excited, they're trying all the things and they're like, what do you think of this wine? What do you think of screw caps? Do you have a Coravin and does it really work? What's your favorite $15 grocery store wine? It's really fun.
And then you also have the people who are, like, flexing. It's usually men, let's be honest. We started this conversation by talking about giving space to women in wine. That's another thing that men do. They take up a lot of space, and they take up a lot of space telling you what they know, even when they're talking to a professional in the industry. That's frustrating – I'm not going to lie about that. But I have mastered the art of the nice little smile like, Oh, thank you so much for telling me something I already know! That's part of just how we as women have to live our life. I don't want to say that, but it's something that we face daily in our regular life, and I certainly face it being a wine professional.
So I guess it's a little of everything. It's people wanting to have a good time, to have some delicious wine in their glass and it opens conversation. That's what I love about it.
Merobebe
That's so interesting, and answers the other question I was going to ask about whether you see a difference in how you’re treated as a woman educator in wine.
Brianne Cohen
They don't want to hear your answer half the time, they want to just interject their stuff or they want to know what you think of their wine choice, like, What do you think of Caymus? I think it all comes from insecurity. I don't think most of them are trying to be like, Oh, this woman doesn't know anything, I'm going to prove her wrong. I don't know that that happens that often. I think it's more about – it's one of these topics that for whatever reason, people think they need to know everything, especially professionals who are in a client-entertaining setting and trying to show off their vanity wines.
It’s like, just chill out. You don't impress me. I am a very happy gal if I have a $12 bottle of Vinho Verde chilled at home. Am I also equally happy if I have a really ridiculous, $300 beautiful Rhone wine? Absolutely. It's like the high, low concept in fashion. You can wear your Gucci Flats, your Gap jeans, and then the top that you got at a second hand store. It’s the same with wine. You can enjoy that fancy stuff that you want to tell me about and be like, Look how much I know. But you should also be able to enjoy your $15 grocery store wine!
Merobebe
I agree 100%. One last question for you: How do you think the wine industry can better support and promote diversity and inclusivity, not just in winemaking but the industry as a whole?
Brianne Cohen
That's a huge question. That's not one that we can answer in this conversation because it's a big, multilayered thing. But the issue, which we talked about a little bit already, is that wine is not a space where people feel super comfortable all the time – like the overwhelming and confusing language. If you didn't grow up around wine, if you didn't have access to wine, or wine was never a part of your everyday life, you weren't invited to the table [in the industry]. It's perceived as an insiders club with all these words and things that people that aren't involved don't know a lot about.
So, I want to change that. That's what I'm out to do, because when I host my tasting experiences for corporate groups, I focus on highlighting diverse-owned wineries. That's my way of doing it because I get to exercise what I love to do, which is to talk about wine and communicate about wine, but I get to do it in a way that I feel is meaningful and is moving the dial a little bit.
I also think the industry needs to do the same and be more welcoming of inviting people to the table. All of our voices and opinions are important and if you enjoy wine, you should feel welcome in this space at any time. That to me is the ultimate goal. To achieve that, there's 10,000 things that have to be done because I think whether you’re walking into a tasting room, talking to a sommelier in a restaurant, or picking up wine in a wine shop, you should feel comfortable, you should feel confident, you should feel like your opinions and ideas aren't getting pooh poohed, and like you're not being judged. It's all about getting the customer closer to a wine that knocks their socks off, whether it’s a $10 grocery store wine or something expensive.
Get Brianne's newsletters and read her blog at briannecohen.com or find her on Instagram at @sommspirations!