Pascaline Lepeltier

Pascaline Lepeltier is an award-winning sommelier based in Manhattan, New York, who grew up in the Loire Valley and detoured from a career as a philosophy teacher. After working in Michelin-star restaurants in France, she moved to New York City to open the Michelin-star Rouge Tomate beverage program, which she ran for ten years. Her wine list was quickly recognized and in 2017 was named “Best Wine List in World” by The World of Fine Wine. In 2018, she became a partner in Racines NY, one of the top wine destinations in the USA. In 2022, alongside Chef Jonathan Karis, General Manager Jared David and wine guru David Lillie, she opened Chambers, a farm-to-table wine-focused restaurant in TriBeCa. She passed the Master Sommelier in 2014 and became the first woman to win the Best French Sommelier competition in 2018. That year she also became an MOF, Un des Meilleurs Ouvriers de France – sommellerie. In 2023, she was the first woman to represent France in the Best Sommelier in the World competition where she finished 4th. Pascaline teaches with the Wine Scholar Guild and is a regular guest speaker for international congresses and seminars. She writes a monthly column for the most important French wine publication, La Revue du Vin de France. In 2022, she published her first solo book, Mille Vignes, to be translated into English in 2024. Finally, she makes a small quantity of natural wines from organic historical hybrids with her partner, Nathan Kendall, in the Finger Lakes, New York, under the label chëpìka.