Master Sommelier David Keck discovered his love for wine while pursuing a career—and traveling the world—as an opera singer. He has a Master of Music Degree from Rice University, an undergraduate degree in English and Comparative Literature from Columbia University, and attended Juilliard for opera performance. After years of bartending and working in hospitality between operatic gigs, David took his first sommelier course with the Court of Master Sommeliers in 2010 and decided to make the career change. David was named one of Food; Wine’s Sommeliers of the Year in 2016, and passed his Master Sommelier exam later that year, making him the 149th American Master Sommelier and the 233rd in the world. He was awarded the StarChefs Rising Stars Restaurateur of the Year award in 2019.

David has presented seminars for the Court of Master Sommeliers, GuildSomm, Vine Society, and numerous other educational organizations. He is a featured presenter at events such as the Aspen Food; Wine Classic, Pebble Beach Food; Wine, TEXSOM, Nantucket Food & Wine, and many others, and is a sought-after wine judge for competitions both nationally and abroad.

He founded the Houston Sommelier Association and created LoireFest, a Texas-wide celebration of the Loire Valley. Since going full-force into the hospitality field, he has worked in every aspect of the beverage industry: He has opened restaurants, wine bars, honky-tonks, and retail shops, worked in sales and directed wine programs for distribution companies. Fate finally brought him back to the Northeast where he now farms a vineyard and makes wine with hybrid grapes in the mountains of his home state, Vermont.

We interviewed David, who provided his insights about the wine industry, which you can see below.

Your current place of work.

Stella14 Wines

Tell us about yourself (please write min 50 words).

Originally from Vermont, my first life was as a musician. Always working in hospitality concurrently, I transitioned fully into life as a sommelier in 2010, passing my MS Diploma exam in 2016. I worked in restaurants and hospitality, founding a hospitality group in Houston in Houston, then returning to my native state of Vermont in 2020. During the exciting COVID era, I leased the oldest commercial vineyard in Vermont and began making wine!

Why did you want to become a sommelier?

I've always loved working in hospitality, trying to create the most interesting and fulfilling experience for guests, and wine is one of the most complex and rich ways to do that. Wine is also just a wildly multi-disciplinary field which means there is always something new to learn and pursue. 

Questions you would ask a customer who doesn't know anything about wine?

What have you enjoyed drinking recently?

Are you planning on having this beverage with food, or just by itself?

What are some of the most important skills for a sommelier?

Humility, remembering that our job is to provide our guests with the best experience possible. Then intellectual curiosity, determination, and work ethic.

How I would train my new staff member in their first 7 days of them joining.

We start with Wine 101, everyone is coming to this business at a different point in their wine journey, so we must be all speaking the same language. From there it is getting to know the wine list, the menu, the staff, the systems, and all the tools that can make that staff member successful. 

Image: David Keck

What methods do you use to grow wine sales - top line? Please explain with examples.

Wine sales grow when your staff is excited about your program and your program is shaped to at least most of what your guests are looking for. If you are opening a steakhouse, writing a list full of off-beat natural wines from Australia might make the job challenging. Filling a hip wine bar with readily available CA Cabernet is also the wrong choice. Finding the niche, the sweet spot on the price list, and then playing to those strengths will go the farthest to generating sales. 

What methods do you use to grow net profits?

Watching the COGS like a hawk is key, making sure that your list is priced properly, and creating a successful sliding scale. Anyone not making bank on their BTG Pinot Grigio and Malbec is crazy, but simultaneously create deals for those willing to be adventurous and try wines that are new and exciting. 

How do you self-learn and improve your skills?

Every visit from a distributor, sales rep, winemaker, etc. is an opportunity to ask all the questions possible and learn something new. Wine list re-writes are also an amazing opportunity to dive deep into a region or wine that might be new. 

What's the best part of your job?

Opening an exciting new wine for a guest. Seeing a new staff member start to wrap their head around a concept. 

How do you elevate the guest experience? Please give 4-5 examples and insights here.

Listening is crucial in the guest experience. Doing your utmost to understand what a guest is looking for, the evening they are hoping to have, and how you can best help them. If a guest is looking for something new and you've heard enough in the opening conversation to understand a bit about where they are coming from and their basic wine history, then you've got the opportunity to pour them something that will change their perspective. You might be able to open their eyes to a new region, or possibly a new grape variety. 

It is also incredibly important to understand early on how much interaction those guests want. Do they want the history of this winery and the family or do they want to continue their conversation? Do your best not to linger when guests clearly don't want you there, and similarly, don't walk away when they are hungry for more information. Work with your team and chef to understand the menu fully-- sometimes an unexpected pairing or nudging a guest away from or into a specific bottle to best fit the cuisine can dramatically influence the dining experience. Never be afraid to ask for help-- sometimes a table is just difficult, we all want the best experience for our guests and the goal is going from good to great, but sometimes you're starting at mediocre or ok, not good, and you are just not finding the groove. Phone a friend, and get someone else at the table who might be better able to understand and help that guest. It's not about us and our ego, it's about the result for that guest.

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Your favorite TV show right now?

I've enjoyed watching Lupin.

What are the biggest faux pas that customers tend to make when ordering and drinking wine?

Ordering by grape variety and assuming that the grape variety will define the wine more than region, climate, winemaking, etc. 

Any favorite food and wine pairing suggestions for drinks enthusiasts?

Off-dry Chenin Blanc and mackerel sashimi. 

Your favorite book?

Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad

Give us one good story that you remember of a customer and you.

I remember a fun encounter with someone who was in the wine business, at the end of a work day and mainly drinking nicer Burgundy. He asked me to pour something blind, not classic, just fun, and I had the opportunity to turn him on to some of the beautiful single vineyard Blaufränkisch from Roland Velich at Moric. It started a great conversation and he ended up shipping a few bottles home!

How can suppliers work with you to drive sales?

Other than the obvious help of working to find successful pricing and the more traditional financial collaboration (keyword, there) that can be found, suppliers can also forge really important relationships with staff to create excitement and interest around brands. They also have the opportunity to connect us to wineries and winemakers in more personal and profound ways. They have worked hard to establish and maintain their professional relationships with their portfolio-- it is helpful for us to understand how and why their portfolio is the way it is. 

Can you share with us an example of a solid wine program?

I've always loved the list at Terroir in NYC. Paul Grieco is a mad genius and the list is thoughtful but irreverent, brilliant but accessible, and has the opportunity to dive deep and sit reading the wine list for an hour or ask for help and get an amazing bottle.

What are the points you look at when selecting a new wine for your wine program?
Story, taste, price, and viability in the program.

According to you, what makes a good sommelier, and what qualities do you look for when hiring a sommelier?

The hospitality gene is crucial and the thing that is hardest to teach humility and the knowledge that there is always more to learn, and the creativity to constantly be seeking out that information. Almost everything else can be taught.

What do you look for when you have to evaluate the effectiveness of the wine program?

How is our COGS doing, what is our waste, and what is our dead inventory?