Lisa Minucci

Lisa Minucci is the Sommelier for the Martini House as well as its downstairs Wine Cellar Bar, one of the Napa Valley's only full wine bars. She oversees the 600-bottle collection, and is able to choose from some of the area's most prestigious private cellars and winery reserve stocks.

Minucci discovered her passion for fine wine while exploring the cellar of a wealthy collector when working as a press agent for the United Nations, her first job after graduating from Simmons College. Soon after, she left the political world for the viticultural one.

As a member of the Sommelier Society of America and the Association de la Sommellerie International, Minucci has rigorously pursued a deep and broad course of wine education, working toward her Masters of Wine. She continues to study with periodic seminars at the International Wine Center in New York City and the Institute of Masters of Wine Program of the Wine and Spirits Education Trust of London.

Minucci has been Sommelier at many award-winning properties, most recently as first Sommelier and Fromager for Club XIX at the Lodge at Pebble Beach. Previously, she was the first Sommelier of Auberge du Soleil, a famed Napa Valley restaurant and hotel, and Sommelier at the recently closed Cypress Club restaurant in San Francisco. Before moving west, Minucci worked at the world famous Sherry Lehmann Wine and Spirits retail store in New York.

Minucci accredits much of her deep understanding of the complexities and flavor of wine to real life work in the labs and cellars of wineries in Napa Valley, where she has worked in between sommelier positions. She has worked at, among others, Cain Cellars, Michel-Schlumberger Estate Winery and Cakebread Cellars.