Secret Life of a Sommelier
By: Sarah Chappell
Published: April 26, 2011

Sommelier Michael Madrigale has published his first article in Wine Enthusiast, sharing an average day working in the wine industry. In this diary-style piece Madrigale, the head sommelier and wine director of Daniel Boulud's Bar Boulud in Manhattan, gets home at 4 AM, eats hot wings for breakfast, and can put away 35 cases of Burgundy (at around 40 lbs each!) in half an hour.
Between meeting with wine wholesalers and blind tasting his staff, Madrigale shares his thoughts on what it means to be a sommelier. "I feel almost like a psychiatrist and a detective," Madrigal writes. "My job is to figure out what style of wine [customers] want."
At the end of his day, Madrigale grabs an open bottle of Côte-Rôtie and heads home. The famed Northern Rhône syrah is certainly a job perk worthy of an 11 1/2 hour shift.
Photo by Gianni Dominici