Edwin Jongsma #157
Wine lover who has lift up his passion into a profession
Edwin Jongsma is the owner of Luxury B&B Bacchus Grotto, sommelier in the Caveau du Cru Cairanne, and the Rhône wine expert.
He had a 30 years career as a commercial director in the IT Industry in the Netherlands. In 2020 he moved to the South of France to fulfill his dreams and achieve a life change.
Since the age of 11 he came to the Vaucluse region and was catched by the colors, the Provencal aroma’s, the never-ending vineyards and the beautiful bottles with Cru village weapons. With his first wine sip the tone was set. A Chateauneuf du Pape.
Edwin is also a certified wine taster for Certipaq, an institute which is responsible to test all new cuvees and vintages before they get launched to the market. Edwin speaks French, Dutch, German and English and is always open to taste your wine in trade for his opinion.
The beginning of an exciting journey into the world of wine
In his early twenties, he began discovering wines. Read a lot about the grapes, winemaking processes and the different regions and appellations of the world. He was always the guy who was asked to take care of the wine list and talk with the sommeliers in restaurants. At the beginning of his thirties he decided, when I turned the age of 50 I want to move to the Southern Rhone wine region, where the Grenache grape is the King. And so he did.
Career path
In 2020 he landed in the Cru wine village Cairanne and opened up the B&B Bacchus Grotto for wine lovers. In 2021 he successfully finished the WSET 1 and WSET 2 program. At the beginning of 2022 he started to look around to work in the world of wine after helping out the Perrin family during the Black Friday days at the end of 2021.
The first of June 2022 the new Caveau du Cairanne, the appellation shop which represents 50 winemakers and 80 different cuvees, opened its doors. Edwin started as a sommelier and loves to give the customers a great tasting experience and tips in the region. Every week he posts tasting notes of Southern Rhone wines at his Instagram account Van du Pays and in the Facebook group Rhone Wine Lovers.
Let’s connect!
