Laura Hernández Espinosa

Coming Up

Wine service asks for method, memory, and control. Laura Hernández Espinosa’s training at University in Buenos Aires, EAS wine school, and University gave that work a formal base, with study shaping the way she reads a wine list, a cellar, and a room. The result is a career built on disciplined tasting and the kind of judgment that comes from repetition, not rhetoric. That foundation has carried into her long-running roles as head sommelier of Leo (since 2009) and executive director of FunLeo (since 2009), where service and management have to stay aligned. Hospitality leadership also depends on consistency over time, and Laura Hernández Espinosa has built her position through that kind of steady practice. Her work sits at the intersection of wine, operations, and decision-making, with each part reinforcing the next. As a business partner of various business ventures, she has extended that same approach beyond a single service setting into broader enterprise.

Signature

Coca leaf liqueur appears in Laura Hernández Espinosa’s signature dishes, a marker of how flavor can carry culture without needing explanation. The detail fits a profile grounded in selection and intent: ingredients are not just there to land on the plate, but to articulate a point of view through taste.

In Their Words “It is an award that will allow me to continue using the kitchen as an important lever to generate social and economic well-being, especially in developing countries.” Laura frames the kitchen here as an instrument with consequences beyond service. The emphasis is practical: culinary work can shape opportunity, create value, and operate as part of a larger social and economic structure. “After tasting wine in that first class, I told my housemate I wanted to commit myself to wine.” The line points to a decisive first encounter with tasting, then to the commitment that followed. It marks the moment when interest became professional direction, with wine moving from a classroom experience to a sustained field of work.