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  BALLANCE Gillian

  Master Sommelier U.S.A.

Gillian views the selection and enjoyment of wine as expertise without pretense, with an emphasis on the fun and excitement of exploration and discovery. Ballance has spent more than 15 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 1995 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.” In 2005, Food & Wine Magazine recognized the wine list at Jack Falstaff as one of the ten best in the United States. In her free time, Ballance is traveling the wine world attending conferences and wine events or guest judging for wine competitions, Ballance is a graduate of New York University where she earned a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree. She received her Higher Certificate of Distinction as well as her Diploma in Wines & Spirits from the British Wine and Spirits Education Trust, and in 2012 earned the Master Sommelier diploma from the Court of Master Sommeliers. Ballance is the 18th woman in the world to earn this prestigious ranking. Ballance currently resides in Sonoma and is the Wine Director for the Lodge at Cavallo Point in Sausalito, where she oversees a 2300 selection wine list and 15000 bottle cellar for the luxury property's 2 restaurants.