France
Speaker
Paz Levinson
Executive Sommelier with Anne-Sophie Pic*** (Valence, France)
The Argentinian sommelier holds down an elite post in her profession, a sector in which she has earned the respect of her colleagues through hard work and the desire to better herself.
A Literature graduate, Levinson worked in bars and restaurants in Buenos Aires in her student days, and it was there that she learned the trade from scratch. She had planned to be a writer, but the world of wine drew her in and, after training as a sommelier and teaching at the Argentinian Wines and Spirits Centre (CAVE), she became the first Argentinian to obtain the Court of Master Sommeliers’ Advanced Sommelier Certificate. Constantly willing to learn more and improve, Levinson came fourth in the World Sommelier Championship in Mendoza in 2016.
Restless and inquisitive by nature, her eagerness led her to spend half a year in China researching the culture of tea, following which she travelled to France and worked in leading restaurants such as Le Bristol, Epicure and Virtus, the Japanese restaurant Chiho Kanzaki and Argentinian eatery Marcelo Di Giacomo. Since March 2018 she has been Executive Sommelier of the PIC Group, which operates restaurants in France, Switzerland and the United Kingdom. Her boss is chef Anne-Sophie Pic, the only woman in France with three Michelin stars.
She also indulges in further advanced training in the US alongside Rajat Parr; in England with Gérard Basset; in Sweden alongside Rubén Sanz Ramiro, and in Canada with Véronique Rivest. She is also the Regional Chair of the Decanter World Wine Awards tasting panel for Argentina.
