Intro - I'm Ivy Waret

Hey lovely Wine Shiksa readers!

This is me, Ivy Waret, 25 years old French girl with two passions in life: Travel & Wine.

I have this adventurous part of me that always pushes me to go abroad each I have an opportunity. I did 2 semesters abroad in Austria and China during universities and left almost 2 years in Australia and New Zealand after my studies.

I’ve always worked in hospitality, hotels, events and bars and when you’re abroad and you say that you’re French, everybody thinks that you know everything about wine (sorry but I wasn’t born sommelier!). So I’ve started to learn about wine, to visit some wineries, to read some books. And I really really fell in love with this whole world of wine. It was so interesting that I couldn’t stop there.

I wanted to link this love for wine with my career in hospitality and travels. But for that you definitely need strong knowledge, I started the WSET 2, I was looking for a first experience in a winery and I had the amazing opportunity thanks to pro wine language to continue with the WSET 3 in South Africa with an internship in a winery in sales and marketing. So here I am working in Hermanus, Western Cape, at Whalehaven winery!

Wine not?

In my opinion, anything in life gets easier with passion. If you are really passionate by what you do, you’ll start doing it because you want it and not because you have to do it. Certain compromises in your couple, going to the gym every day, spending hours in a horrible flight to travel, with love and passion it feels just natural. When you think that you actually spend more time at work than anywhere else, you better love your job. That was the most important for me, to find a “passion-job”, to wake up every morning and think: “it’s going to be a great day, I’m going to do what I love” and not: “sh**, I don’t want to go to work”.

But obviously, most of the time, the steps to find THIS job are a little bit bigger than a normal job… You will probably need more time; more commitment, more knowledge and you definitely need to trust yourself. If you ask me, I want a job where I can mix what I love: wine, hospitality & travel. I mean, why not? In 2020, we can even invent a new job, build our own company, and do what we want to do.

For me everything about wine is sharing. I want to share with the world all these traditions; I want people to understand what is behind a bottle of wine, the amazing work achieved before you could even taste a wine; I want to tell you about my jorney from wine passion to wine profession.

Follow me on Instagram for posts about my wine journey - @di.vin.e.