Master Sommelier Q & A: Sara Floyd of Luli Wines and Swirl Wine Brokers

Get ready for some major, positive girl power!

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I am so excited to get back to another Q & A. It’s definitely a goal to have more and especially with female and minority leaders in the world of wine. So I am THRILLED to have Master Sommelier Sara Floyd featured here today. I am lucky to know Sara in real life as she now lives in Charleston, South Carolina, but her work life is still very much focused in California. There she has a wine distribution company (Swirl Wine Brokers) and a wine brand (Luli). We will learn more about both those projects and also about Sara’s journey to becoming a master sommelier (there are only 28 master somms in the world!). To say she is an inspiration is an understatement, AND she is a ton of fun. AND her wines are delicious (back in my days of managing a wine shop/bar I almost always used Luli Pinot Noir in my blind tasting class as it’s such a classic, lovely example of California Pinot!). So without further ado, here’s Sara!

To start off, was wine part of your life growing up? How about food? Did your family spend a lot of time cooking? Or eating out?

I am from and grew up in Berkeley California which is known for its food culture. The home of the iconic Chez Panisse. My first words were spoken while at lunch with my mother at Chez Panisse. My mother and father were amazing cooks and dining out was a VERY significant part of our lives. My father was a true bon vivant and taught me the true love of dining out and all its decadences. Both my mother and father’s families loved and cherished good food and cooking in a humble fashion. My mother went to the Cordon Bleu cooking school while living in London in the 1960s. My parents divorced when I was very young, and my father was so spoiled with my mother’s cooking that it inspired him to start cooking and take cooking lessons from the great chefs Jeremiah Tower and Ken Hom. I am envious that he was able to learn from those two epic, iconic chefs. I am also a passionate cook, learning mostly from my parents, my restaurant exposure, and my overwhelming collection of cookbooks.

Well you certainly have a solid foundation on the food side of things! Now give us the short version of how you ended up working in wine, becoming a master sommelier, and now having your own wine project, Luli.

While in college I worked as a hostess in a restaurant, and it quickly became clear to me that this was the industry I was going to be in. I had a life changing dinner at the the one of its kind — Rubicon Restaurant. It was a restaurant in San Francisco that was owned by New York based restaurateur Drew Nieporent and his film industry partners: Francis Ford Coppola, Robert De Niro, and Robin Williams. It was a wine centric restaurant lead by the dream team, Chef Traci Des Jardins and Master Sommelier Larry Stone. I dined with my parents when it first opened, and while there Larry Stone came to our table to help us with our wine selection. It was at that moment, I decided that I wanted to work for Larry and focus my career in wine. At that time, there were so few master sommeliers, and Larry was definitely considered one of the very best, if not best in the world. I was smitten…I had found the person I wanted to learn from. I was determined to work for Larry and eventually got a job as a wine runner/bar back…it was heaven for me. It was at Rubicon that it became clear to me that I was going to pursue the Master Sommelier title. Larry Stone became and is still my mentor. We are still very close; he officiated at my wedding and is the godfather of our twin boys who happen to be born on his birthday. We named one of our boys Jack Lawrence after Larry.

After Rubicon, I was the wine director for two very well known San Francisco restaurants: Vertigo restaurant, which was at the base of the Transamerica building, and the world renowned Postrio Restaurant. I curated award winning wine lists at these very high profile restaurants, but after several years I felt I had come to the peak of my positions and it was time to move into a different role in the wine industry. I was offered a job from Martine Saunier, the first woman importer of fine French wines in the U.S. It was there I knew that this was my place in the wine industry. I worked for Martine for several years and in 2001 I decided it was time for me to start my own company. With Martine’s blessing, I launched a national sales and marketing company called Swirl Wine Brokers. Throughout all these jobs, I was working on becoming a Master Sommelier. In 2003, I passed the Master Sommelier exam and became the 10th woman in the world to become a Master Sommelier. Today , there are only 28 women Master Sommeliers which I am passionate about changing. WE NEED MORE WOMAN IN THE COURT OF MASTER SOMMELIERS.

Going to back Swirl Wines…my national sales and marketing company represented the iconic, Pisoni Vineyards (in California’s Santa Lucia Highlands region). Jeff Pisoni and I worked very closely together in launching their families iconic wine, Pisoni Estate. One spring evening in 2007, Jeff and I were having dinner together and were discussing the need for high quality, well priced wines from the Santa Lucia Highlands that speak from where sense of place. It was there we both came up with the idea of partnering up to produce these wines from their home region. (This became Sara’s project Luli.)

So give us your elevator pitch on your line of wines – Luli.

Our vision with Luli is for our wines to be inclusive, not exclusive. Wines with integrity. Luli wines are made not to be dumbed down or made esoterically austere but instead to give people high quality wines that are proper examples of their varietals and place from where they come from. Our goal is to make great wines that overdeliver for their price. The name Luli comes from the meaning in the Urban dictionary which defines a Luli as a super cool, great hang, great energy, WOMAN. Those are the vibes we want to to emulate in Luli. Wines for enjoyment, friends and good times. We are all LULIs!

Love it! And that’s a perfect lead into my next question…I don’t want to put words in your mouth but as a woman myself I know there are obstacles that I faced in this male dominated industry. Do you have any advice you would give your younger self that might help others as well?

Always Obstacles (ERRR!!) and I wish we could get over this but sadly, it’s still an issue. My advice is to support your fellow woman, be proud of your fellow woman, and champion your fellow woman. We need to stick together as a united force. When I host my badass women lunches, the respect, power, pride, and admiration we have for one another shines. It’s wonderful to be a part of and proud of all the woman in this industry.

Amen to that! And now let’s wrap up our chat with a bit of daydreaming and discuss what would be your dream wine dinner/dinner party…

I love cooking with friends. A wonderful dream would to have a dinner party at our house here in Charleston working with local delicacies as well as some decadent imports like white truffles, caviar, and cheeses with my chef and wine friends. It’s always inspiring to cook with our chef friends..Ben Berryhill, Stuart and Nicole Brioza, Traci des Jardins, Pim Techamuanvivit, Gabrielle Hamilton, and James Yu alongside my wine friends, Belinda Chang, Paul Roberts, Bobby Stuckey, Laura Maniec, Larry Stone, Laura Catena, Ken Fredrickson, Shelley Lindgren, Brian Larky, Greg Gorman, Christie Dufault , Jordan Mackay, Misty Wilder, to name a few (lol), and of course my husband Jim Mead. The diversity of their cooking styles would make it a very electric and exciting menu. We would definitely want you there too Sarah! (Insert blushing from me!)

Would you start the planning with wine first or food first?

Food is always the first to take into consideration. Wine accompanies the food. We would definitely plan the menu first and pair accordingly. But that being said…for wines that I would want for my dream dinner they would include COPIUS amounts of 1982 Champagne Krug Clos du Mesnil; 1996, 2008, & 2012 Champagne Bollinger Vieilles Vignes Francaises; 1990 & 1996 Domaine Coche-Dury Corton Charlemagne in magnum; 1978 Domaine Henri Jayer Richbourg, Echezeaux and Cros Parantoux in magnum; Domaine Dujac 1969 Clos Saint Denis in magnum; 1978 & 1995 Chateau Rayas; and 1947 Chateau D’Yquem in magnum. Why?? Because they are amazing wines I have enjoyed in the past but can no longer afford. Would be wonderful to enjoy all these iconic wines with my beloved friends and family.

And what would be the ideal ending to the night...a raging dance party or a quiet, chill, drinks by the fire kind of ending?

Our kitchen is well known for after dinner dance parties…would probably start with some 80s tunes but need to incorporate some classic blues for my husband who is twelve years older than me and quite opinionated on music :) … drinks would continue to flow! I tell our non-industry friends that come for dinner — you have to regulate your intake since we NEVER run out of wine and spirits…if you glass is empty, it is our job to keep it filled. Can be a rough next day if you don’t take that into consideration.

Finally, where can we find Luli wines both here in Charleston or online.

Luli is available in many retail stores throughout South Carolina but all the Bottles stores throughout the state have all my wines and Rollers stores in Hilton Head. Luli is not in any corporate retails stores so you will only find them in the independent retailers. Online, we have Luli throughout the U.S.

(See, I told y’all Sara was fun!!!)

Now back to this Sarah — if you live in Charleston, please save the date for my first ever wine and cheese class at Philosophers & Fools book store/wine bar with my good friends from Counter Cheesemongers (Eric Casella & Nora Granger) on Wednesday, July 16, from 6 to 7:30. Tickets are $75, and the class will explore wine and cheese pairings via the concept: what grows together goes together! For example we will taste an Alpine style cheese with an Alpine wine! The focus will be on French wines and French inspired cheeses. (Counter Cheesemongers specializes in small creameries from the United States that take their inspiration from the old world!) There will be three wines and three cheeses and plenty of information regarding the featured wines and cheeses and general pairing advice.

There will be time at the end of class for retail purchases of the featured cheeses and an order sheet to order your favorite wines for pick-up. Plus the amazing owners of P&F, Jenny Ferrara and Michael Bourke, will have a featured table of France inspired books ready for you to peruse (and purchase).

Seating is limited to P & F bar to allow for an intimate, focused experience; so don’t hesitate when I announce they are on sale — probably next newsletter if not a special midweek edition!

(If you have not been to P&F yet, prepare to fall in love…it is a cozy neighborhood bookstore/bar on Bogard Street in downtown Charleston. Like Counter Cheesemongers, it is a true labor of love — run almost entirely by its owners, who also have other jobs! I now order all my books from there!)