On February 20, in Sonoma, California, the Canadian Joris Gutiérrez García won the title of ASI’s Best Sommelier of the Americas 2025, making him officially the best sommelier of the hemisphere.
In an extremely hard-fought final, he won out over Nicolás Reines from Colombia, and Mark Guillaudeu from the United States. With this triumph, he didn’t just become the Best Sommelier in the Americas, establishing himself among the international sommellerie elite, he also won entry to the ASI Best Sommelier of the World 2026 competition, which will be held in Lisbon.
So, who is Joris Gutiérrez García? Preferring to keep a low profile but deeply committed to his trade, this 32 year old Canadian sommelier is one of the rising stars of the Montreal gastronomy scene.
His career in the world of cocktails began with a detour into gastronomy: when he was 15 years old, he worked as a kitchen assistant but it was at the Institut de Tourisme et d’Hôtellerie du Québec that he found his true passion. “I discovered my love of wine through travel, working at restaurants, but it was truly sparked after my first wine class. My first step on the road to wine came through a 1999 Côte Rôtie La Landonne from Guigal. I loved that wine! But back then I didn’t even know that it was mostly Syrah.”
Since then, Joris has enjoyed a successful career built on talent and hard work, one that eventually saw him become the Chef Sommelier at the renowned restaurant Club Chasse et Pêche, and win the award for best Sommelier in Canada in 2023.
We spoke with Joris, Best Sommelier of the Americas 2025, to learn more about his background and his views of wine and sommellerie.
Interview with Joris Gutiérrez García, Best Sommelier of the Americas 2025
Joris, you started out in the gastronomy industry at a very young age before moving into sommellerie. What does the profession mean for you?
Sommellerie is everything to me. Most of what I know I learned through the study of wine: history, architecture, geopolitics, geography, chemistry, geology and more. What I most love about the profession is its diversity: I work in service, choosing wines for the menu, importing wines, teaching and travelling, meaning that every week is different. These skills help me enormously in my daily work at the restaurant.
Why did you decide to develop these skills and how do you prepare in each area?
I grew up with a pretty competitive older brother, so I like to challenge myself. When I was a boy, I competed in swimming, then football, and I also played basketball for a long time at secondary school. But I got into the wine competitions because I’m curious and I love to learn but if I don’t have the pressure of a deadline, be it an exam or a competition, I find it harder to concentrate.
I couldn’t say exactly how many hours I spend training a week because it feels as though the training is continuous: I listen to podcasts, read wine books and magazines, drink wine with friends and family, work in service, attend tastings and wine fairs, or just visit a wine store. If I had to put a number on it, I’d say that I spend 20 hours a week studying and training.
I try to focus on theory and tasting as they’re aspects that don’t come naturally to me. In service, in contrast, I’m more intuitive as I’ve spent over 17 years working in restaurants. For me, the best way to learn and hone my skills is to surround myself with people who can help me. You can’t do it yourself (at least I can’t)!
How do your skills help you to become a better professional?
I think that training in service, learning about the world of wine and improving my skills as a taster have helped me in absolutely every aspect of my career, inside and outside the restaurant.
Identifying a wine blind isn’t something that directly helps me to come up with a better wine list. But the ability to evaluate the quality of a wine, its position in the market and its cellar potential helps me greatly when selecting the great classics, wines that offer excellent value for money and new gems for the wine lists I produce. For instance, if I try a Côte du Rhône that tastes like a Châteauneuf-du-Pape but costs half the price, I’ll make sure to buy a lot of it.
What is your view of the current state of sommellerie in Canada and globally?
It’s enjoying an excellent period. In Canada we have a great gastronomy scene and a community that is incredibly passionate about wine from coast to coast. Our customers are too and that’s still growing. In Montreal, most restaurants have a sommelier, which is fantastic because then you know that the place values wine and someone with passion made the choice.
At a global level, I see my colleagues doing incredible things that inspire me greatly so I think that global sommellerie must also be doing very well. A few months ago, I was in Norway for a competition and it was incredible to see how much the candidates knew and the restaurants where they work.
You enjoy travelling. Which are your favorite wine regions and preferred wines?
That’s a difficult question! I love so many wine regions. I love the wines of the Loire, northern Rhône, Burgundy, Champagne, the old Bordeaux, Tuscany, (especially Chianti Classico), Rioja, Jerez and many more. Having said that, I find wines that amaze me in most of the classic regions. My favorite grape is Riesling, especially from Germany and Austria.
A region I’d love to explore is Piemonte, especially Alto Piemonte. I’m very keen to go there.
In any case, I feel I should get to know the wines of the southern hemisphere much better in general. I think they’re world class but I don’t know enough about them because in my market (Quebec, Canada) we don’t have much access to them.
How familiar are you with the wines of Argentina?
I studied and tasted Argentine wines for many years but I feel that there’s still a lot to discover.
I visited Mendoza last year for the Malbec Camp organized by Catena Zapata and I fell in love with a lot of their projects. The wines are world class, and what most excites me is that there’s excellent value for money to be had, both in a 20 dollar bottle of wine and one that costs over 150 dollars.
I think that trying White Stones and White Bones from the Adrianna vineyard, while we were looking out at the Andes, and learning about the soils, the clones, the site and the work behind the wines, together with a group of Canadian sommeliers and journalists was one of the most special moments of my career.
Argentina, like Canada, is an enormous country, so there’s a lot to explore. On my next visit I’d like to go to Salta and Patagonia, although probably not on the same trip because they’re quite a long way from one another.
In general, what I most enjoy about my trips and viticultural experiences isn’t just the wine but the people behind it, the places and the culture. My last trip to Argentina was incredible and I’d love to go back to learn more about its rich history and culture.
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