News has begun emerging of gastronomy opening up again, lockdowns easing, and even the cautious beginning of limited international travel. With those good tidings in hand, I hope this edition of the newsletter finds you healthy and safe wherever you are around the globe!
I am struck by the ways the pandemic has accelerated existing trends at ASI. We had already been pushing hard toward greater professionalization and digitization across all aspects of ASI communication, from newsletters and press releases to social media and master classes. At a time when our members cannot perform their prime function — table service — ASI can help them work on the rest of their professional profile: study, sales, teaching, training and tasting.
You might not be able to go to the wine, but with a bit of adaptability and flexibility, ASI can help bring the wine to you — digitally, anyway. We initiated Gold Partner webinars to increase our knowledge and Zoom toasts to tighten our ties to one another. We facilitated online celebrations of International Sommelier Day on June 3 that drew tens of thousands of guests from all continents to raise their glass to our fine profession!
These feats of community and communication don’t happen on their own. They are built atop hard work by our existing social media and PR teams. To this end, we’re pleased to announce a few additions to the ASI family. Juliette Jourdan has been engaged as an Administrative Assistant, fluent in all three ASI languages and has been an incredible asset. Paula Redes Sidore, an American sommelier based in Germany, is also our new Communications Consultant. Working with the rest of the incredible media and communications team, Paula has helped professionalize our newsletter over the past year and will now work to shape how ASI presents itself to the wider world.
But communication requires active participation on both sides of the mailing list. We need each of you, whether president of your chapter or rank-and-file member, to encourage colleagues and members of the media to subscribe to the newsletter. It’s a crucial step in further amplifying ASI’s work: good for our profession as a whole, and even better for the communities we live in, which will learn more about the people trying to make the world a little brighter one glass of wine at a time.
Sante, and hopefully until we see each other again in person soon!
Andrès Rosberg
ASI President