London is home to a remarkable pool of talented wine personalities who are devoted to helping diners enjoy the diverse world of wine. But the people behind the best wine lists in London rarely get the recognition they deserve, especially compared to their chef counterparts. Instagram is one of the hottest, if not THE hottest social media platform for people to share not only photos but stories, videos, direct messages and much more.

Many wine lovers have invested the platform, some of them with great success, reaching large audiences of wine aficionados all around the world.

Here is the list of Top 10 influencer sommelier in London  

1. Carine Saliva

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Carine Saliva has worked in the luxury hospitality industry for 15 years. She began her career with Pernod Ricard in Brazil, became a wine sommelier & Master of Spirits in Italy, and have spent the last 5 years developing new high-end restaurant projects in London. She focuses on offering guests amazing food & drinks made with the highest quality ingredients, providing outstanding service, and maintaining a successful business.

2. Sabrina Manolio

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Italian wine is one of the world’s great joys and also one of its greatest headaches. It’s claimed that even most Italians don’t fully understand it, but one who does, luckily, is Sabrina Manolio at Covent Garden restaurant Margot. Previously based at L’Atelier de Joël Robuchon, Manolio is, naturally, equally well versed in French wines too.

3. Sandia Chang

Chef-turned-sommelier Sandia Chang is from California. She moved to train at the internationally acclaimed Culinary Institute of America in New York, and chalked up stints at René Redzepi’s Noma in Copenhagen and Thomas Keller’s Per Se in New York (where she met her husband, James Knappett) before moving to London in 2010.Experience at some of the world’s most respected restaurants led her to found Bubbledogs in 2012 with Knappett. Based at 70 Charlotte Street in Fitzrovia, Chang took on the role of general manager and sommelier, while Knappett manages proceedings behind the pass.

4. Honey Spencer

Despite seeing the world of wine as a mammoth subject, this up-and-coming sommelier has thrown herself into the global dining scene in the past decade. Spencer began her hospitality career with a bartending stint at Jamie Oliver’s Fifteen after graduating from Kingston University with a 2:1 in International Business with languages, which gave her the chance to spend part of her education studying French literature in Paris. It is often said that one falls into the wine industry, and so it seemed for Spencer.

5. Ronan Sayburn MS

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Famously modest and generous with his time, Ronan Sayburn MS has been in the wine industry for nearly 20 years. Sayburn was executive head sommelier of the Gordon Ramsay Group for eight years, He has guided many a sommelier from the back bar to the front of the house, and his 5,000-strong wine list at 67 Pall Mall is the best in London. From here, he went on to be crowned UK Sommelier of the Year in 1998, competed twice representing the UK in the European Sommelier Competition, and gained his Master Sommelier qualification in 2005.

6. James Lloyd

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James Lloyd’s sommelier career began in 2002 when he worked as a commis sommelier at Restaurant Gordon Ramsay on Royal Hospital Road in Chelsea. There, he moved his way up to become an assistant head sommelier. Hungry for adventure, in 2006 he moved to New York to be part of the opening team for hotel restaurant Gordon Ramsay at The London. After an inspiring stint in Piedmont working both as a sommelier and an apprentice winemaker, on his return to London in 2008, Lloyd worked at some of London’s top fine dining establishments, including Marcus Wareing at The Berkeley and Alain Ducasse at The Dorchester.

7. Terry Kandylis

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Kandylis was studying physics at the University of Athens, while working for some of the best restaurants in Greece, when the wine bug bit.“My inspiration was my cousin, who influenced my first steps and opened the gates for me to discover what is hidden in the wonderful world of wine,” he says. After completing the first three levels of his WSET qualifications in Greece, he moved to the UK, where he landed a position at Heston Blumenthal’s revered gastro-molecular pub The Fat Duck in Bray.

8. Christopher loecoufle

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Don’t be fooled by his fresh-faced looks Christopher Lecoufle couldn’t be more serious about wine. Born in Normandy in 1994, Lecoufle trained to be a fireman, but cut his wine teeth in Paris, starting his sommelier journey at the Michelin-starred restaurant Lasserre, where he began as a commis waiter and worked his way up to become a commis sommelier.

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9. Matteo Montone

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Having started out with the aim of working in tourism, Montone sensibly decided that wine was his true passion and threw himself into the subject. The moment came, he says, after a journey to Montepulciano in 2008, a trip taken to celebrate having completed his tourism studies whereupon he ditched that idea and went straight back into studying wine and hospitality.

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10. Jan Konetzki

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One of the NatWest dressers in the drinks trade, Jan Konetzki (Wine List Confidential’s 2018 Sommelier of the Year) is rarely seen without a tailored blazer, pocket square and signature round specs in a variety of shades.

Born in Lüneberg in northern Germany in 1980, before oenology crossed his mind Konetzki began training as a baker, bartender and waiter, then became lured into the world of wine. He got his big break when he was appointed head sommelier at the three-Michelin-starred Restaurant Gordon Ramsay on Royal Hospital Road in London’s affluent Chelsea district.

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