Wine Director, Gillian Ballance

Gillian Ballance, wine director for the PlumpJack Group, views the selection and enjoyment of wine in a manner entirely in keeping with the philosophy that inspired the original PlumpJack Wine Store: expertise without pretense, with an emphasis on the fun and excitement of exploration and discovery. Ballance believes that the job of the wine director is "to keep the list interesting, with fun, new wines for guests to try and for the staff to learn about."

Ballance has spent more than 10 years in the hospitality and fine dining industry. Prior to joining the PlumpJack Group, she was the award-winning sommelier at Bacara Resort & Spa in the Santa Ynez Mountains in Santa Barbara, California, where she developed and implemented the beverage program for the resort's four dining venues, maintained the 15,000-bottle wine collection in Miro Cellar, and managed all staff training in wines and spirits.

Ballance served as sommelier at Picholine from 1999 to 2000, and prior to that she was at Cello for one year. From 1996 to 1998, she was the cellar master and sommelier at Windows on the World in New York City, where she selected and purchased all the wines for the multi-tiered program.

Ballance has been honored professionally with a bronze medal in the National Young Sommelier Competition established by the Confrerie de la Chaine des Rotisseurs. From 2002, Miro Cellar's extensive wine list has earned Wine Spectator's prestigious "Best of Award of Excellence."

Ballance is a graduate of New York University, where she earned a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree in dance. She received her Higher Certificate of Distinction, as well as her Diploma in Wines & Spirits from the British Wine and Spirits Education Trust, and has continued on to the Masters of Wine Education program for 2004.