During his freshman year, Gaither worked his first service job at Cafe Intermezzo in Buckhead.

“I kind of fell in love with my coworkers and the culture,” he said.

Over the years, he worked various restaurant jobs, including at the now-shuttered Buckhead Life Group restaurant Nava, to support himself through college.

It wasn’t until graduating in 2005 when Gaither spent a short stint teaching high school students that he realized his passions might lie outside the classroom.

He returned to the service industry, getting a job at One Midtown Kitchen from Concentrics Restaurants. His general manager at the time, John McDaniels, encouraged him to learn more about wine by taking free classes offered by the restaurant’s wine supplier. There he met other oenophiles, and they all formed a tasting group that would get together to try wines from different regions.

In 2007, Gaither and his cohort began their sommelier journey, and the following year they all achieved the first level through the Court of Master Sommeliers ― certified sommelier.

There are a handful of organizations that bestow sommelier certifications, the most prestigious one being the Court of Master Sommeliers. It offers multiple levels of certification, each one requiring participants pass a rigorous exam to advance to the next level.

Credit: Courtesy of Chris Gaither

Credit: Courtesy of Chris Gaither

In the meantime, Concentrics gave Gaither even more opportunities to flex his burgeoning skills. They tapped him to host wine classes and special events for guests, and later he started working at Restaurant Eugene as a server and sommelier.

Those experiences, coupled with passing his first certification, made Gaither realize he could make a career out of it. The only problem — he had exhausted his opportunities in Atlanta. He wanted to continue learning, but he didn’t have thousands of dollars to spend on expensive courses, so he searched for an alternative entry point.

Gaither found it at The French Laundry, chef Thomas Keller’s three Michelin-starred restaurant in Napa Valley, California.

A year after applying, he landed a highly competitive unpaid internship at one of the most renowned restaurants in the world.

Forging a path

Moving from Atlanta, a cosmopolitan, diverse city, to Napa Valley, a fairly rural place lacking in racial diversity, was a culture shock, he said.

But Gaither was accustomed to being one of the few Black people working at the restaurants where he was employed. Diners would make assumptions about his role, asking him to bus their tables or bring them more bread. According to a 2023 survey by the American Court of Master Sommeliers, only 3% of sommeliers in all certification levels are Black.

But that just motivated him to climb the ladder even higher, so the next time someone goes to a restaurant and sees a person of color recommending wine, they won’t be surprised. He saw an opportunity to build a more open and inclusive community, one that can embolden others to join its ranks.

“You can say, ‘Oh, maybe I don’t need to be here.’ S---- that. I didn’t say that,” he said. “I said, ‘OK, you know what? There needs to be more people here. Let’s go. Let me do this, and hopefully this helps to open the door for more.‘”

Working without pay at The French Laundry, Gaither, then 26, vastly underestimated how expensive living in Napa Valley would be.

“It was grueling,” he recalled. “I was broke. I was eating ramen and peanut butter and jelly sandwiches just trying to figure out how to do my thing.”

He had moments of uncertainty while living in Napa Valley, but his family and friends were a strong support system for him, and he was determined to “stick it out and figure out how to be successful there.”

Working in such a detail-oriented environment left a mark on him.

He recalled one moment in particular when the lead sommelier called him out for doing a poor job of removing labels from some wine bottles for a guest.

“That kind of shook me in a good way,” said Gaither. “It made me double down and really kind of adhere to that kind of mindset, you know, it’s not about you. It’s about the guests. It’s about taking care of the people that are coming into the restaurant.”

After the internship, he worked another year at The French Laundry. It was his first interaction with people who were all striving to achieve the highest level of knowledge, and that spirit was infectious. The culture inspired him to strive for more, but he also recognized it would take him longer to move up the ranks if he stayed, so he decided to move to San Francisco.

Credit: Courtesy of Chris Gaither

Credit: Courtesy of Chris Gaither

It was in that pursuit of knowledge that he met his future wife, Rebecca Fineman.

They were seated next to each other at the ESPN Zone in Disneyland Resort while waiting for the results of the advanced exam. Gaither remembers her asking, “You’re not going to talk about the exam, are you?”

“Oh, anything but that,” he replied.

So they talked about their shared interests for a while and exchanged numbers, since she was about to move to San Francisco. They reunited there as friends for several months before dating and getting married.

Fineman passed the master sommelier exam in 2017, a tremendous accomplishment that few achieve.

“It’s a very rigorous process that in some cases can take people many years to accomplish,” said Janeen Jason, a certified sommelier at VinoTeca in Inman Park. “You have to be a very special person and give up a lot to dedicate yourself to this level of certification.”

The exam requires earning at least a 75% in all three sections: the theory of wine ― a verbal exam that tests a candidate’s knowledge on wine history, technique, grape varieties, service procedures and other alcoholic beverages like sake, beer and cocktails; hospitality and service ― where candidates are evaluated on their wine service skills in a restaurant-like setting; and a blind tasting ― where candidates must identify six wines by their characteristics including grape variety or blend, the region and the vintage.

Only about 10% pass.

In 2018, Gaither failed the final section, requiring him to retake every part.

By then Gaither and Fineman were raising their first daughter and had opened Ungrafted, a wine bar, restaurant and bottle shop with chef David Aviles in the Dogpatch neighborhood of San Francisco. Aviles previously worked at several Michelin-rated restaurants in Chicago. The mission of Ungrafted was to make wine accessible and unpretentious so guests could enjoy the beverages without feeling the need to know everything.

While working lunch and dinner service at Ungrafted, Gaither studied in the early mornings and evenings to pass the first two sections of the exam “by the skin of my teeth” in 2019. But in 2021, he failed the final tasting section again.

Later that year the couple celebrated the birth of their second daughter, and Fineman gave Gaither an ultimatum: This is your last try. If you don’t pass, you don’t need to sit again.

“It’s a strain,” he said, recalling that do-or-die moment. “It’s a lot to do that, to be able to prepare for the exam. It’s expensive, it’s very time-consuming, and it was very hard to manage my time with the studying and the preparation for that, plus working and running a restaurant, plus being a dad.”

Hearing his wife describe the toll it was taking on their family and on the restaurant was the reality kick he needed. She told Gaither that the family needed him and he had to finish what he’d set out to do.

In 2022, at the age of 38, he “came back with a vengeance” and successfully joined the exclusive ranks as a master sommelier.

Finding a new goal

Initially, Gaither felt elated and relieved at having achieved the goal he had sacrificed for and worked toward for years. But after that faded, he wasn’t sure what would come next.

“That was a really strong sense of purpose for me and ... the next challenge was being able to redefine and have a different purpose,” he said.

So he focused on being a great dad, a devoted husband and a supportive mentor to others in the industry.

In 2023, Gaither, Fineman and Aviles opened a second wine bar and restaurant, GluGlu, with an emphasis on global and experimental wines and Mediterranean-inspired bites.

Gaither also serves as brand ambassador and director of education for Brown Estate, the first Black-owned estate winery in Napa Valley, established in 1980 when the founders purchased an abandoned ranch and planted viniferous grapes. He assists with strategic planning, acts as a representative at wine events around the country and helps the wholesale team with promotion and sales.

His duties with Brown Estate, as well as his work as a donor and fundraiser for Morehouse College, brings Gaither to Atlanta often

According to Jason at VinoTeca, it’s rare to see a master sommelier in Atlanta as often as Gaither is in town.

“It’s nice to have someone that looks like me that can show that, hey, this is a very achievable certification,” Jason said. “Anyone who puts their heart and mind into it can do it.”

Jason and Gaither agree that the wine industry is growing evermore popular and approachable, and it’s slowly becoming more diversified.

“Every time I come back (to Atlanta) I see more people of color who are working in wine, and also I see more women, and I’m so freaking happy about that,” said Gaither.

Still, there’s room for growth. Gaither believes it’s important the Southeast sees more representation in the industry, and he’d like to see the region engage more in general with sommeliers and wine professionals.

As more casual diners take an interest in the wine list, and wine-focused shops and restaurants open around metro Atlanta, Gaither said it’s more important than ever to have a sommelier around to guide diners and shoppers on choosing what to drink.

More than a decade ago, Gaither decided that becoming a Spanish teacher wasn’t the path for him, but he’s found a different outlet for educating others. Motivating others to immerse themselves in the wine industry is part of his role as a master sommelier, and it’s especially salient as more people from diverse backgrounds are getting into wine.

“It’s a great time to be in the industry,” Gaither said. “And there’s so much more that we need to do.”

Event preview

Wine tasting. Join Chris Gaither for a tasting of four House of Brown wines. 5:30 p.m. April 23. $39 per person. Kindred, 2751 Lavista Road, Decatur. 404-975-3542, kindreddecatur.com/events

Recommended wine shops

Master Sommelier Chris Gaither recommends the following wine shops in metro Atlanta that employ staff sommeliers.

3 Parks Wine Shop. Multiple locations. 3parkswine.com

Perrine’s Wine. Multiple locations. perrineswine.com

VinoTeca. 299 N. Highland Ave. NE, Atlanta. 470-377-5100, shopvinoteca.com

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