Grape Expectations

In her first column for us, Asia Tatler’s new resident oenophile, Sarah Heller, reveals how she went from peeling potatoes in an Italian restaurant to becoming the world’s youngest Master of Wine

Welcome to my first column for Asia Tatler. In the coming months I’ll be taking you on a journey through unexplored wine regions, discussing emerging trends and highlighting classics worth revisiting. We’ll dig into the ways wine, like my first love, art, is more than your everyday luxury good, how it’s a vessel for culture, profuse sensation and deep meaning like few of life’s other pleasures. So buckle up; it’s going to be a heady ride.

But first let me tell you how my love affair with wine began. I was born and raised in Hong Kong and, like most children of ambitious, successful working parents, I grew up knowing they expected me to get a top-shelf education and then a stable career.