Article written by Yanna Delière
He chose Mauritius and the challenge of building a wine culture where none existed — and he turned it into an exceptional career.
A career built for adventure
Jérôme Faure could have carved out a fine career in France’s great houses. He chose a different path. A native of the Drôme, trained at the Lycée Lesdiguières in Grenoble, he set off on adventures very early on — Ireland, Scotland, the Seychelles — before landing in Mauritius in 2004 to take charge of sommellerie for a group that then had just three hotels. A Maître Sommelier and Knight of the Order of Agricultural Merit, it was by choosing the unknown that he would build one of the most singular careers of his generation.
Building a wine culture from scratch
When he arrived in Mauritius, sommellerie was almost non-existent there. Twenty years later, he oversees the cellars of 25 restaurants within the Constance Hotels & Resorts group, leads nearly 100 sommeliers and has trained more than 60 local professionals — some of whom have since joined other establishments. He founded the Mauritius Sommeliers Association and created La Paulée de Maurice, an annual event that brings together winegrowers from around the world and wine lovers for a week of tastings and masterclasses. In 2015, his wine list was recognised by Wine Spectator as one of the best in the world.
Passing it on, always
What sets Jérôme Faure apart is less his collection of accolades than his everyday philosophy: devoting time each day to training his teams, and taking them each year to meet winegrowers in the field. His wine list reflects this boundless curiosity — references from all over the world, presented with the same enthusiasm whether it’s a modest bottle or a great one. In Mauritius, he is not just a head sommelier. He is the one who grew a wine culture where there was none.
Why this encounter?
Behind the scenes of my choice
Including Jérôme Faure in this series was an obvious choice: in a panel of ten sommeliers shaping the future of the profession, it was essential to have a voice speaking from the other side of the world. Not from Paris or Geneva, but from Mauritius — where sommellerie was built against all odds, in a country with no vineyards, in the face of stubborn prejudice.
My aim with Jérôme is to explore sommellerie as outreach and transmission. His testimony enriches our series by bringing something no one else embodies so fully: proof that a sommelier can choose to export their know-how and wine culture — and that this choice is a form of excellence in its own right.
THE VINEYARD AND THE CLIMATE CHALLENGE
In the face of global warming, do you believe more in the migration of traditional grape varieties or in the rise of interspecific (resistant) varieties?
“Personally, I believe more in the migration and readaptation of traditional grape varieties than in the emergence of interspecific varieties.
We’re already seeing some regions take very concrete decisions in this direction. In Châteauneuf-du-Pape, for example, estates such as La Janasse are reintroducing permitted but long-neglected varieties such as Muscardin, Terret Noir, Cinsault and Counoise. These varieties bring more freshness, finesse and more moderate alcohol levels, which fits perfectly with today’s challenges.
Blending, historically at the heart of the identity of southern French wines, is becoming a real lever for adaptation. Rather than trying to replace, why not rebalance, play on the existing diversity, and adapt this philosophy to other regions while respecting their identity?
That said, we mustn’t forget that some regions are also benefiting from global warming. Areas that 30 years ago produced great vintages only 3 or 4 times a decade now enjoy more regular, higher-quality ripeness.
Finally, we shouldn’t underestimate the ability of the plants themselves to adapt. The vine evolves with its environment. Take Chenin Blanc in South Africa: imported from France two centuries ago, it has gradually adapted to the hot conditions of the Swartland and now gives remarkable expressions. This even opens up interesting avenues: perhaps, in some cases, we should take a fresh look at, or reintroduce, massal selections already adapted to more extreme climates.
In short, rather than creating something entirely new, I think there are already a huge number of solutions in our existing viticultural heritage, provided we know how to explore it intelligently…”
CHANGING CONSUMPTION
No-low is booming. A passing trend or an essential pillar of the future wine list?
“I must admit that a few years ago, I was rather reluctant about alcohol-free wines. But as a sommelier, you have to move with the times — and today the demand is very real, mainly linked to constraints such as driving.
What is very positive is that it allows people who don’t drink, or who have to drive, to no longer feel excluded from the experience. It’s a real change in the approach to service and hospitality.
On the other hand, we have to stay clear-eyed: many products on the market are still too sweet or of poor quality. In those cases, I prefer to be honest and steer guests towards a good fruit juice rather than offer a poorly balanced product.
That said, things are moving very fast. New techniques, such as low-temperature vacuum distillation — which removes the alcohol at around 30°C — now make it possible to achieve much more precise results while preserving the wine’s aromas. I’m thinking in particular of the Mousseux from La Galinière in Provence. The obstacle remains the significant investment involved, which for now limits access to certain producers.
No-low can also be seen as a gateway to wine: some consumers start with these products before moving on to traditional wines, and in that sense it’s rather a good thing.
Finally, as sommeliers, our role is also to offer smart alternatives. For example, suggesting naturally lighter wines, such as some Mosel wines from Germany at around 8 to 10% alcohol, is often a wonderful surprise for guests.
In short, no-low is not a passing trend but a segment that is here to stay, provided we remain demanding on quality and integrate it intelligently into the offering.”
THE FUTURE OF THE PROFESSION AND TRAINING
What do you think is the best way to train effectively in sommellerie today?
“Training is a subject that is particularly close to my heart, and one I attach great importance to in my daily work.
Being based in Mauritius, I’ve had the opportunity to train young people, some of whom had never tasted wine in their lives. So we started from scratch. And that proves one essential thing: anyone can learn about wine. Some will naturally find it easier than others, but that’s true in every field.
For me, the key is still to start with structured training, with professionals able to pass on the basics properly: understanding tasting, acquiring a method, and knowing how to find your way through styles, grape varieties and appellations. Today, in my view, one of the benchmarks for sommellerie training remains the school in Tain-l’Hermitage, which offers top-quality teaching with attentive trainers and a real passion for passing on knowledge.
The most important thing is to understand how wine is made. If you get the chance to take part in a harvest or a vinification, it completely changes your perception of the product. Travel also plays an essential role in training. Meeting winegrowers, discovering different wine countries, understanding terroirs on the ground — it’s an irreplaceable experience for a sommelier. You learn as much in the field as from books.
So it’s essential to have a solid foundation at the start, and then to keep learning on your own, with curiosity and humility. I also think it’s important to remember that wine must remain accessible. Its sometimes elitist image can discourage some consumers — and this lack of transmission and teaching perhaps partly explains why some people are turning away from wine today, which is a shame.
In short, the best approach combines structured initial training, hands-on experience, travel and continuous learning. But above all, we must keep in mind that wine is within everyone’s reach, provided you are well guided at the start.”
FINAL WORDS
Why do you love this profession so much, and what advice would you give a young person hesitating to take the plunge?
“It actually follows on from what I was saying: sommellerie is above all a profession of passion.
It’s a profession of encounters, first and foremost. We exchange with winegrowers from very different backgrounds and share powerful, sometimes very convivial moments with them. But we must not forget one essential thing: our work takes place mainly on the restaurant floor, in direct contact with guests.
As sommeliers, we are lucky to be generally very well regarded by guests. But that comes with real responsibility: you have to know how to listen, understand expectations — sometimes even what goes unsaid — and guide guests towards the wine that best suits both their tastes and the dishes.
It’s also a very complete profession, because it isn’t limited to wine. It’s essential to know cooking well, in order to better understand balance and create accurate, intelligent food and wine pairings.
Sommellerie also opens up incredible horizons: it’s a profession that can take you all over the world, whether to work in international establishments or to discover vineyards.
Yes, it’s an expert’s profession — and it can seem intimidating or difficult at first. But with curiosity, hard work and above all passion, everything becomes achievable.
My advice would be simple: if you’re curious, if you love human contact, sharing and discovery, then go for it. Because ultimately, beyond the technical side, this profession is a human adventure — lively and deeply exciting.”
In summary: the key takeaways from our interview
Through the eyes of Jérôme Faure, tomorrow’s sommellerie takes shape on a global scale. By choosing to leave France to take up the challenge of an island with no wine tradition, he proved that expertise is not confined to the terroirs where it was born — it travels, it adapts, it spreads. Where others would have seen a gap, he saw an opportunity: to build, train and pass on, on land untouched by any wine culture.
His vision of climate change — intelligently exploring our existing viticultural heritage rather than reinventing everything — and his pragmatism about no-low — neither dogmatic rejection nor blind enthusiasm — paint the portrait of a clear-eyed professional, grounded in the realities of the field, yet looking to the future with quiet confidence.
Across oceans and time zones, Jérôme Faure embodies the figure of the “sommelier-builder”, whose greatest achievement is not his wine list ranked among the best in the world, but the dozens of Mauritian sommeliers he has trained — who, in turn, pass it on.