Sommelier Celestino Rodríguez’s philosophy is simple: read the room and guide guests toward what they enjoy, rather than turning the experience into a lesson in wine.

One of the first people to graduate as a sommelier in Argentina in 2000, Rodríguez got his gastronomy chops working in the restaurant business from a very early age.  

Today, he is the head sommelier in the Michelin-recommended restaurant Cauce in Puerto Madero, where he met with the Buenos Aires Herald and talked about the identity of Argentine wine, his view of the craft, and winemaking in a context of declining global consumption. The following interview has been slightly edited for length and clarity.

How did you start working in the world of wine?

I have been in the gastronomy business my entire life. I started at fifteen as a dishwasher at the Navy Officers Center in Olivos, working Saturdays and Sundays while attending school. There was a gentleman there who was always offering wine, which deeply caught my attention. There was a massive demand for wine back then because people drank it naturally with both lunch and dinner. Later, I trained and graduated as a pastry chef and went on to study a bit of everything: baking, protocol and etiquette, ice cream making, catering… always working in hospitality, but not yet in the wine world. I was working right next to Cabaña Las Lilas in Puerto Madero and I ran into Marina Beltrame, head of the Argentine School of Sommeliers, who was inviting industry workers to the school’s launch. I went the very next day and signed up. I became the first person ever to enroll in a sommelier program in Argentina.

How do you see the wine........

© Buenos Aires Herald