By Pepi Osmani, Level 2 Sommelier & Renowned New York Restaurateur
I’m Pepi Osmani—a Level 2 Sommelier and a restaurant owner with a Michelin star in my past and some of New York’s most prominent dining rooms in my present. I’ve spent decades in the business, building restaurants where experience matters, where every detail is deliberate—and where wine has always held a central place at the table.
But something’s shifted. And not in a good way.
Wine used to be about nuance. Quiet complexity. A reflection of the land, the vintage, and the hands behind the bottle. It used to whisper—if you listened closely enough, you could hear entire stories inside a single glass.
Today? It shouts.
Loud labels, louder branding. Wine isn’t talking to people anymore—it’s marketing at them. I get it. The wine industry, like everything else, has scaled. It’s global, digital, democratized. And sure, that’s brought positives: wider access, more diversity in producers, new energy in the market.
But it’s also brought noise. Way too much noise.
Wines are being made to go viral, not to age gracefully. There’s more money in mass appeal than in mastery. Some of the bottles selling fastest today are more about branding than balance. And we’re losing something essential in that shift.
I started teaching wine for that exact reason—to bring it back to what matters. Not to impress, not to posture, but to reconnect people with what’s actually in the glass.
In my classes, we talk less about tasting notes and more about context. We explore the why, not just the what. We drink to understand. Because here’s the truth: you don’t need to be a sommelier to appreciate great wine.
You just need curiosity. You need honesty. You need someone to say, “This is what makes this wine worth your time.” That’s what I offer. That’s what I live for.
Some of the best wines I’ve ever tasted came from people who had dirt under their nails and no interest in Instagram. They didn’t need flashy labels. Their wine was the story. You could taste the weather, the slope, the stress of the harvest. That kind of wine? It doesn’t need a sales pitch.
But these days, it’s getting buried under brands chasing trends.
Orange wine, pét-nat, canned varietals—they’re not inherently bad. Some are great. But they’re often sold as novelties, not expressions of place or tradition. And when wine becomes a gimmick, it loses its soul.
I’ve seen this shift from the front lines—managing wine lists, curating pairings, hosting tastings. I’ve had the privilege of pouring wines that never make it to retail. Wines with character, with flaws that make them human. Wines that make you stop mid-sentence.
That’s what I’m trying to bring back.
Through my restaurants. Through my wine classes. Through every conversation I have about this craft I love.
Because wine isn’t just a product. It’s not supposed to be packaged like soda or posted like a meme.
Wine is about feeling. About connection. About memory. And if you’ve never had a wine that made you feel something, you haven’t had the right one yet.
I’m Pepi Osmani, and I’m here to change the way we talk about wine—one glass, one guest, one honest moment at a time.