Just elected Best Sommelier of Belgium 2024-2025, Margaux Balemans (24 years old) officiates at Grand Verre, the gourmet restaurant that Wout Bru opened in Durbuy. After six years spent learning cooking and room service at the Ter Groene Poorte school in Bruges, this negroni fan, head sommelier of the Sanglier des Ardennes group and right-hand man of the renowned Gianluca Di Taranto, decided to passion for wine
First name Margaux
The table is a place of communion where tongues are loosened and hearts become closer. I come from a family of butchers – my parents and my grandparents were too – where work takes up a lot of space, if not all the space. I have fond memories of these moments when we gathered around a good meal and a bottle of wine. In my family, wine is a passion that is passed down from generation to generation, it is not for nothing that my name is “Margaux”. And if I became so interested in it, it was partly because of these memories of time spent together that opening a bottle fostered…
Best Sommelier
Stay true to yourself to open up new perspectives. I participated in the Best Sommelier of Belgium competition for pleasure and passion. I did it for myself, even if I realize today that my title raises many expectations. I can relate to some of them, but others are too far from my personality. It reminds me how important it is to keep your feet on the ground, to know who you are, and to embrace it. When, in a restaurant, a customer asks to see the sommelier, he still too often expects to see a man show up. Sommellerie has for a very long time been a men’s story, and I am proud to contribute to the feminization of the profession.
Question of taste
Smelling and tasting can be worked on. We are not equal in tasting, some taste better than others. For me, it was helped a lot by the fact that I cook a lot, which requires me to constantly smell and taste. That said, if there is anything that Covid has taught us, it is that we can exercise our senses, work on them to the point of recovering sensations. I advise people who can’t identify what they perceive in wine to walk around their home and smell everything possible, then do it again with their eyes closed. It’s a good way to create a personal olfactory library.
“I am proud to contribute to the feminization of the profession. »
Dry January
Sommellerie doesn’t stop with alcohol. Even today, even if this is changing thanks to initiatives like Dry Januari, we often forget that the profession of sommelier goes beyond the scope of alcoholic drinks. Many alternatives offer an incomparable dimension of texture and flavor. It is very stimulating to acquire this knowledge and to satisfy those who do not drink, or temporarily do not, alcohol. One of the great charms of this profession is that it is based on living matter in constant evolution. We can therefore never completely control it.
Go towards the unknown
Surprise is the salt of life. At a restaurant, we know that we like, for example, burgundy or burgundy. My greatest pleasure is to ask questions, to carry out a sort of maieutics to find out what is hidden behind this or that aspiration. I consider that I have fulfilled my mission 100% when I manage to make people like a bottle which, while conferring the same dose of pleasure, comes from an unknown geographical area, or even results from a grape variety totally different from the initial request. . It’s a fascinating game for me, I feel like a little girl in a candy store when this latitude is offered to me.
No planet B
Climate change should be cause for concern. In the wine sector, warming has two faces. It creates opportunities of course, we can be happy about that, but I am very sad to know that certain centuries-old wine adventures will come to an end due to these changes. We can say to ourselves “that’s life, everything has an end”. The fact remains that I feel concerned when a transmission that takes place from generation to generation is interrupted. And we should all be concerned.
Compliments
Society operates too much on negativity. I often notice, especially in restaurants, that giving a compliment is seen as a kind of weakness. We are stingy with praise, yet it is precious fuel for those who receive it. Also, I notice that if, during a party, someone criticizes me, I will think about it over and over, forgetting all the other people who left the table happier. However, I try to get over it by telling myself that it helps me grow and evolve.
