Viktorija Todorovska’s Wine and Olive Affair

Wine and Olives

“Tu es amoureuse des olives!” A six-year old’s description of author, linguist, sommelier and Mediterranean food aficionado Viktorija Todorovska. According to Todorovska, the young girl pegged her with such laser accuracy that she is considering changing the title on her business cards to read “Amoureuse des Olives.”

Viktorija Todorovska

Born in Macedonia (part of Yugoslavia at the time) Viktorija explains that making wine was part of the fabric of her childhood. Everyone she knew, including all of her family members, were involved in the annual process of converting grapes to wine. Viktorija admits that some of the home-brews she sampled were a little harsh, but she certainly understood the entire progression from picking the fruit through de-stemming, crushing, and fermentation.

It was her first trip to Italy that uncorked the world of wine for Viktorija. She had the opportunity to sample some excellent bottles and began to understand the breadth of the wine and spirits world. In her words,

“While studying languages, I traveled to Italy and got to taste some great wines. This intrigued me, so I wanted to learn more. But, for a while I found wine quite intimidating: there was just so much to know (grapes, regions, producers, flavour profiles), and I wasn’t sure I could ever memorize it all. Now I know that learning wine is a life-long process. After all the training, I still don’t know many things about wine. Every time I meet a producer, taste a new wine or teach a wine class, I learn something new, a new way to look at wine, a new way to describe it.”

Years and many wine tastings later Viktorija’s education may not have concluded, but her credentials place her in the professional category. She is a sommelier, Wine and Spirits Education Trust (WSET) instructor, leads wine tastings at the Alliance Française in Chicago and represents several French wine regions for the US market.

It was a fascination with languages that led Todorovska from a double major in English and Italian (University of Skopje Macedonia) to a Ph.D. in Rhetoric and Linguistics from Arizona State University. What could anyone possibly add to that resume, but a reputation as a passionate cook! Viktorija runs a Chicago-based cooking school called Sip Taste Share and has now published seven books.

Continue reading here for the original contributor blog post by Ginger and Nutmeg