Most wine lovers at some point dream about having a job that would enable them to drink wines from all over the world, and there are people who have such jobs. Journalists come to mind, including this one. To do my job, I must keep informed about what’s going on in the wine world, who’s making what, and what’s really good – or not. It is necessary for me to sample wines of all kinds from all places in order to tell you about them. So I continually buy wine, beg wine, attend wine shows, and talk with wine merchants and producers.

But my responsibility ends there. I only have to talk about wine. I don’t have to make wine or select wine to sell and then sell it. Some people have jobs that not only require them to travel to wine regions around the world but also require them to come back to their companies prepared to tell the companies which wines to buy and then travel their sales regions to convince retail merchants and restaurant managers which wines they should offer their customers, all of which means they have to sample a great many wines.

Glamorous work, isn’t it? Well, yes, in some ways. But it’s also demanding and challenging. In our video April Thomas, representing Olinger Distributing of Wine and Spirits, talks about this glamorous work with all its challenges.