“Varietals” of Career Journeys in the Hospitality Industry in French Wine-Making Regions
My wife and I have recently been touring some of the famous wine making regions of France—Champagne, Bordeaux and the Rhone River region near Avignon. We have been interested in learning all we can about wine for about the last 20 years. By no means are we sommeliers or experts, but we know quite a bit of how wine is made, grape varietals, styles from region to region around the world, and so on. The amazing thing about wine is that when you think you have a grasp on it, there is always more to learn. We have done our fair share of tasting in Australia, California and Italy, but this has been our first time tasting in France.
Below is a picture of the final resting place of possibly one of the most famous wine makers ever, Dom Pierre Pérignon, known as (arguably) the creator or at least one of the earliest innovators of Champagne. Looking back to how (and why) Champagne was produced during his time, you see the variety of hats that people had to play throughout the process, and it is interesting to observe how this still holds true today. It is so easy to overlook just how many different people, career paths and types of roles it takes to produce what ends up in your glass. Going beyond the viticulture and oenological processes, there are all the business sides of wine making, marketing and selling. Moreover, there are also the tour guides, hotel staff, restaurant service workers and so many other people in the business of hospitality that make the experience of exploring these regions so much more than just “having a few glasses of wine.” This post highlights a few stories from the people I was able to connected with in these communities.
A quick point of clarification on methodology—These insights came from organic, informal conversations that were not planned, structured or recorded. I have found that just asking people about their passions and their work is a far more interesting and rich conversation than trying to prompt people with interview questions. Also, I didn’t plan to have these conversations with any of these people specifically. These are stories that just came up through human beings being vulnerable and sharing a bit about their lives and perspectives. Lastly, I have learned very quickly in my short time on this journey that people get a little suspicious when you try to force a conversation about their work or their leader—certain cultures moreso than others. Just being a human connecting with another human without pretense breaks down barriers—shocker! 😂
I say all of this for two reasons: 1) I use quotes sparingly unless I am confident in the exact language someone used, which is why I paraphrase more than inaccurately use quotations. 2) I put respecting culture and making a true connection (2 of my 4 “Big C’s”) above pushing an agenda, which is also why this first post is coming a bit later than I originally anticipated. Things take a little longer when I am looking for inspiration from real life, rather than forcing awkward conversations and arbitrary deadlines.
Lastly, while these are all inspiring stories in my book, I have changed everyone’s names. None of the names used are their real names.
Luther - Wine Tasting Tour Guide in Champagne
Luther was our driver and tour guide while we explored the Champagne houses in the 319 villages of the region—No, we did not go to all of them 😂. He ended up being so much more to us than these titles may describe. Over the 2 days we were with him, he was our educator, translator and “fixer” when things didn’t quite go to plan. He did all of this with the most positive attitude towards his work. He described to us that most of his job is solving problems. It was so much more than just taking his guests from place to place.
A little bit about Luther that we learned was that he was born and raised in Epernay, France, and while he has ended up back in his hometown he has spent a lot of time exploring the world himself. He is very spiritual—he spends the slow times of the year in India and Southeast Asia immersing himself in their cultures and focusing on his meditation practice. After working in the wine making industry in his youth, he has been running tours in the region for the past eight years. He shared that he had started freelancing tours and running his own tours, which gives him more freedom than working for other tour companies who contract him when they need a guide.
It was a fortuitous time for us to meet Luther, as he had such a great perspective on life from his spiritual explorations. His perspective was most welcome considering the new chapter of life we are in, still trying to get our feet under us and figuring out what the heck we are even doing on our sabbatical. He was excited for us and shared how his travels have impacted him and his work. We joked about how he had never come across Americans who shared that they were doing anything like we are doing. Americans just seemed too scared to make a leap like this to him. We had a number of fun conversations about what he thinks we should do when we “get back,” many of his ideas were pushing us to do something not in our current areas of expertise. “Do something you have never thought of before!” He said.
He was excellent at what he did in the traditional sense of his role and title, but I loved how he really enjoyed making people happy—becoming whatever each of his individual guests needed, sometimes not even realizing that they needed it. The definition of a “Guide” in every sense of the word, in my opinion.
Victor - Hotel Maître d’ in St Estephe, France
It was our 18th wedding anniversary while we were in Bordeaux, France, so we splurged a bit on our accommodations, staying at a hotel (well, the French word for it was actually “maison”) that used to be owned and occupied back in the 18th century by the founder of one of our favorite wine producers in the region. Like Luther, Victor did so much more than what his title might divulge. If I am honest, and I mean no offense by saying this, but I guess I always thought of a Maître d’ as basically just a restaurant host. The image that comes to my head is the guy at the restaurant Ferris Bueller and his friends go to, whom Ferris tricks into thinking that he is the Sausage King of Chicago. I am not ashamed to say that I was SOOOOO very wrong!
Victor has had a varied and interesting life leading up to his current role. He has worked in fine dining and hospitality for most of his adult life, including spending time running restaurants in San Tropez and Japan. There are two things that stood out to me about his perspective on hospitality. First, he shared that because the Japanese have such exacting standards, it really helped him hone his own skills. He said that this experience helped him to create his own brand of service that he expects of himself and his team. Second, while in San Tropez, he worked for a Michelin Star restaurant, and although this was excellent experience, he didn’t have the space to build anything. Working in a restaurant that already has that level of prestige year after year and has the overall operation down to a science doesn’t allow much room to stray from the already proven path. While our hotel was a smaller establishment with a smaller staff, Victor chose to come to his current role for the opportunity to build something. To make something his own.
He was also the personal butler for the “villa” experience that this Chateau offers onsite at the winery, which also happens to be where the owner of the winery stays when he is in town. Victor was present for dinner services and stayed late every night, yet he always looked sharp and ready for breakfast in the morning. We joked with him that he must sleep at the maison, and without a moment’s thought he responded that he actually does sleep at the villa since it is so close. 😳
Talking to Victor, you can hear the dedication and passion he has for what he does. He loves making sure people have a flawless experience while they stay under his care, one where they never want for anything. His standards and practices have helped the maison achieve a Michelin “Green Key”—the hotel equivalent of a Michelin Star for a restaurant.
I have been going through a bit of a crisis of identity as it relates to my own career and trying to find my passion once again for the work that deep in my heart I still love. I found myself inspired by his clarity of purpose, impeccable and unwavering performance and passion at such a young age (he couldn’t have been older than 30). We all need a Victor—not just to cater to our needs, which was so incredibly nice to have! 🫢—but we need people like him on our teams. Someone who whole heartedly loves what they do, and through that passion they elevate the work of those around him.
Jane - Chateau Hospitality Manager
Jane is an agronomist by training, but after several jobs working out in the vineyards, she is now leading hospitality for all guests of a relatively well known chateau. The chateau hosts public, private and industry tastings and tours to expose people to its wine and it is still a private home that the owner occupies from time to time as a vacation spot (must be nice!). We were lucky enough to have a cooking class with the chateau’s in-house chef, and then (since the owner was not currently in the home) we were also quite surprised to learn that we would eat in the chateau with our very gracious host, Jane. There is so much that I wish I could have unpacked about the unique scenario that Jane has being responsible for not only running a guest hospitality operation, but also the operation of the private home of your “big boss,” but we only had 4 hours with her! 😉
Our lunch conversation with Jane happened to organically to move into the world of careers, skill building and leadership. Specifically, she shared that her husband is a vineyard manager and technical director for wineries. I am going to refer to him as Peter. Peter recently had some challenges with a new owner of the chateau he was working for. This new owner has every right to change the direction and impart his own vision of how the wines should be created and what the expression of the wine should be. This new overall approach was at odds with how Peter, someone with many years of experience in his field, would recommend doing things, but he stayed loyal and tried to do what was being asked of him. This evolved into Peter constantly being questioned about why he was doing things and how he was doing them. As Jane put it—He is a very confident person, not afraid to voice his opinion. Maybe sometimes too much, but this new experience had Peter questioning his own abilities. He lost his confidence and was a different person, even at home. Jane encouraged him to leave this job because the personal, mental and emotional impacts on their family was not worth the paycheck. He did eventually leave this job.
This broke my heart as I can relate so personally to Peter’s experience, even as someone I have never met. Yet it was also so enriching to hear the love in Jane’s voice as she shared how they worked together to help him get away from this toxic environment. She shared how he has already started to return to the man, with the confidence ,that she fell in love with. It was also heart-warming to hear how happy he was to have so much more time with their children on a day-to-day basis while he has been looking for something new.
Bruno - Tour Company Owner
Bruno was not only our tour guide through Rhone River Valley towns of Gigondas, Vacqueyas, Seguret and Rasteau, he also owned the tour company. Bruno is as outgoing as they come. It’s no surprise to hear the he worked in sales for a long time before starting his own business. In 2014, Brice decided to take the leap to start this touring company. He said it was a difficult grind working every day for the first six years to get the company running with a steady flow of clients. He finally got to the point where he was able to purchase his competitor, which included six additional drivers and expanded his business into additional parts of Provence. Unfortunately, this happened in the beginning of 2020. Luckily, he was able to get through the COVID pandemic and get back to work as soon as he could. At this point he was back to square one, but he was able to quickly build back up and bring back most of the drivers from pre-COVID.
I love seeing a success story of a tenacious small business owner. And, similar to Peter, I related to Bruno in that he was burnt out and needed to find something that reignited his passions. It’s so inspiring to talk to someone who put himself out there and is finding success in his self-driven career.
“We hear of the conversion of water into wine … as of a miracle. But this conversion is, through the goodness of nature, made every day before our eyes. Behold the rain which descends from heaven upon our vineyards; there it enters the roots of the vines, to be changed into wine; a constant proof that God loves us and loves to see us happy." - Benjamin Franklin
The quote from Mr. Franklin is resonnating with me as I think about my new friends. If I had to sum up these unique stories, what strikes me the most is how similar their experiences are, despite living hundreds of miles from one another (with the exception of Jane and Hugo). Yet, they are so interconnected in a singular goal of making people happy and giving them an experience they won’t forget. This is much like the different varietals of grapes and plots of land in the vineyard that ultimately are blended to make a wine. Each has it’s own journey, each has it’s own challenges along the way, but in the end there is commonality and synergy. The miracle is not the process of getting to the end-goal, it is that along the way we all experience many things (some similar to each other, some unique) that make us bolder, more powerful, more elegant, and more refined. Moreover, like the wine-maker tending to the wine, we have people like Luther’s family in Epernay, like the leaders of the hotel who have put so much trust in Victor, like Jane for Peter and like Bruno’s wife, who are there to make sure we come out at our best in the end.
I have no intention of making this blog about me. My goal is to share these stories and put them through the lens of my perspective coming from almost 20 years in talent management. However, I have connected to these particular stories and these new friends on a deeper level than I ever anticipated. That said, this connection is why this blog exists and why I am going down my own path of reconnecting to my passions. I hope at some point I will again have the clarity of purpose and passion that Luther, Victor and Bruni have, and I have full faith that Peter will reconnect with his passions as well. All of us coming out stronger on the other side.
