Véronique Rivest

Wine training in Quebec often sits between restaurant service, import structures, and a climate that sharpens attention to acidity, season, and food. Véronique Rivest’s formal study at Algonquin College of Applied Arts and Technology gave her the technical base for that work: tasting, language, structure, and the discipline required to read a bottle beyond label and reputation. Dining-room sommelier work is where that training becomes accountable to service.

At Restaurant Les Fougères in Chelsea, Quebec, Véronique Rivest worked the floor as sommelier, building the practical judgment required to match wine to food, guest, pacing, and price. The craft here is not performance; it is selection under pressure, with enough range to support the kitchen without making the wine program the point of the meal. A wine bar requires a different kind of authorship: cellar, glass program, staff language, buying decisions, and the daily work of making discovery usable.

In 2014, Véronique Rivest opened Soif Bar à Vin in Gatineau, Quebec, creating a room organized around wine as a working subject rather than an accessory to dining.

The contemporary sommelier’s practice can extend across rooms, retail-adjacent formats, media, education, and travel programs while still depending on the same core skills: tasting, sourcing, editing, and explaining. Véronique Rivest is owner and sommelier of Soif Bar à Vin and co-owner of La Petite Soif, roles that keep her work tied to guest-facing wine service. Airline wine selection applies sommelier judgment to constraints most restaurant cellars do not face, including cabin service, audience breadth, and the conditions of tasting in flight.

Véronique Rivest serves as a sommelier for Air Canada, while also writing on wine for La Presse and teaching as an educator under her own name. Her stated specialties include cool climate Chardonnay, Argentine wine, Godello, and Loire wines.

Sommelier competitions test tasting accuracy, service composure, theory, language, and the ability to make decisions in public. Véronique Rivest was named 2nd Best Sommelier of the World in 2013, after being named Best Sommelière du Canada (2012), placing among the Top 12 Meilleur Sommelier du Monde (2010), earning 2nd Best Sommelier of the Americas (2009), and placing 6th at the Best Sommelier of the World competition (2007). In 2007, she was also honored with the title Femme du vin.