“I didn’t even know sommeliers existed”: the woman changing the way we drink wine

“I didn’t grow up in a wine family,” says Emma Denney, head sommelier at Claridge’s and winner of Condé Nast Traveller’s best new sommelier award in The UK’s Top New Restaurant Awards. “I’m from Auckland. New Zealand doesn’t really have sommeliers unless you’re dining at the super fancy high-end restaurants, which I was not. I didn’t know such a role existed.”

Still, Denney was raised with a culinary curiosity. “My parents would cook exotic food, which was unusual for…