Jaimie Puckett
Sommelier, formerly of Bar Boulud | Boston
August 2020
At 24, Jaimie Puckett has taken the Boston wine world by storm. But first she was a kid from Canterbury, New Hampshire, considering a career in advertising. She moved to Providence, Rhode Island, to study advertising and marketing communications at Johnson & Wales University. During her first two years at school, Puckett worked as a strategic planner for J&W’s in-house marketing agency and as a marketing intern for both Vanuatu Coffee Roasters and Gloria Gemma Breast Cancer Resource Foundation.
In 2017, she landed a job at The Dorrance. The owner of the hulking Providence mainstay, Michael Lester, took Puckett under his wing, opening the world of wine to her. Puckett fell hard for the juice and redirected her ambitions, declaring a minor in “sommelier” (which took a little finagling because that minor had never been offered to business students before). She completed the Level 1 WSET, and, two days after graduation in 2017, flew to Napa to complete the Introductory Sommelier Course with the Court of Master Sommeliers. Puckett returned to Providence to accept an offer to run the shop BIN 312 Wine Cellars. One year later, she earned her Sommelier Certification with the Court. Equipped to educate food and beverage professionals alike, Puckett became a beverage educator at Eataly Boston. Six months later, she was promoted to restaurant beverage manager, assisting with operations at Eataly Boston’s four Italian restaurants. In 2019, Puckett became head sommelier of the Mandarin Oriental Boston and of the restaurant within: Bar Boulud. In 2020, just before the restaurant was forced to close due to the pandemic, Puckett became the general manager. Currently, she is working on a personal project and is exploring other avenues within hospitality.
2020 StarChefs Boston Rising Stars Sommelier Award Winner presented by Wines from Spain
