Head sommelier at Restaurant Pine (one Michelin and one Green Michelin star), in Northumberland, Vanessa Stoltz was raised in Alsace. Her father worked in the trade and she picked up the family passion for wine early, developing it into a fledgling career during a season in the vineyards of Sancerre. Vanessa moved to England in 2016 to become a sommelier, and in 2018 she won the Champagne Gosset Matchmakers competition with her husband, chef Ian Waller. She passed her Court of Master Sommeliers introductory and certified sommelier exams in 2023, and has been included in two prestigious sommelier listings, marking her as one of the top somms in the UK.
