The making of a sommelier

A love of sailing brought French sommelier Arthur Griffoul to New Zealand for the first time, but now Marlborough is his home as he guides locals and visitors through the world’s (and our own) very best wines. He shares his story with Alistair Hughes.

I was born in 1994 in Arles – the westernmost part of Provence, at the crossing of three beautiful French wine regions nestled by the sea. Wine was always an element of conversation around the table in my family, so I think it was always a part of me. I already worked picking grapes most vintages as a teenager but really only came into the industry after studying in Auckland. That was my first trip to New Zealand, in 2013. Being a keen sailor, New Zealand was always a destination because I followed the America's Cup. So by 19, I had saved a bit of money and put that towards gaining a Bachelor of International Marketing.

I had worked in hospitality while studying and returned to that as soon as I got back to France. I was soon given quite a bit of responsibility at a hotel bar after the bartender retired, and all of a sudden I had a lot of freedom in writing the wine list and making cocktails. I was very eager to try new things, and that's when it struck me – hospitality was one thing, but the wine part of hospitality is where it's at for me – so I decided to apply for a sommelier diploma. One of the mandatory requirements was to hold a diploma within the hospitality industry, so while I was studying for my sommelier diploma, I also had to study for a restaurantwaiting qualification. Fortunately I passed both exams at the same time, if I had failed the waiting course, my sommelier diploma would have been denied. So I had a bit of extra work to do, but it was good fun. I like a challenge.

During my sommelier diploma, I did an internship at a fine dining restaurant in Provence, La Cabro D'Or, and they offered me a permanent position. But I declined, because it was a more generic front-of-house role, and wine was what I was interested in. I was also keen to come back to Aotearoa. So they made another offer I couldn’t refuse – an assistant sommelier position in the top-tier restaurant that they also ran – a three Michelin star restaurant in Provence called Oustau de Baumanière.

This presented new challenges. I'm a pretty casual person, but suddenly I was wearing a suit, with the obligation to shave twice a day. You have to be immaculate, impeccable at each service, you’ve got to deal with celebrities and there was a 60,000-bottle wine list. It was another world, and being immersed in that was an experience for sure. The most memorable celebrity for me would have been Mick Jagger. When you're a fanboy of someone and then you meet them in person and hear their voice, you've got to be impressed, right? But you're not allowed to show any of that emotion, you've just got to treat them like any other customer, and every customer has to be treated like Mick Jagger! I also remember Emma Watson being just as stunning as she is in her movies. There were quite a lot of politicians too – that restaurant had hosted Queen Elizabeth, so they knew how to cater for fine dining celebrity guests.

At the end of the season, I was offered the chance to follow the staff to another restaurant called K2, in the French Alps. But finally I chose to come back to New Zealand instead. I had made lots of friends in Auckland as a student, and I really loved this country. I'm passionate about sailing, and moving to the Alps didn't offer much of that, so I chose leisure over career.

While I was doing my sommelier course, I was meeting a lot of wine professionals, one of whom had recommended experiencing the wines at Hans Herzog Estate in Blenheim. While I was browsing their website to organise a visit and eventually do a tasting, I saw that they were in the process of forming a team for their fine dining restaurant. So I applied for the sommelier job and after an interview with Therese, I got it, and moved to Marlborough.

Marlborough was exactly what I was hoping to find. That sort of laid-back South Island attitude, but also the stunning landscape and environment that we get to enjoy here.

I managed to get a work visa, and Scotch Wine Bar offered me a position, so I worked there for five years managing the wine programme, during which time we were named New Zealand's Best Wine Experience by Cuisine Magazine in 2022. We kept raising the bar, but after five years there and obtaining my NZ residency, I was looking for a new opportunity and that's when a friend of mine who owns a farm in the Awatere offered me a full-time position and a house on the farm. So I absolutely enjoyed juggling sheep and cattle mustering, growing sauvignon blanc and doing a lot of kite surfing at Marfells Beach, only 25 minutes away.

I was kite surfing pretty much weekly at the time, until I had a bad crash, ending up with multiple dislocations of my ribs. I needed surgery and eventually had costochondral prosthetics – a 3D-printed rib cage, essentially.

After that, my fine wine shop Soif (French for 'thirst') came about as a response to a need. I thought, you know, we're in New Zealand's main wine region – we need a dedicated wine shop with someone who can help people navigate through the selection, as other regions have.

I'm loving it. I've got to reconnect with a lot of the clientele from Scotch Wine Bar, and meet new people. The intention is to create a space for the Marlborough wine industry and passionate visitors to come together, and to represent the small independent producers from New Zealand, but also iconic and hand-selected international producers from around the globe. Being French, obviously the selection is intentionally a bit biased – but I'm absolutely set to stay here for a while.