Julie Dupouy-Young

Julie Dupouy-Young was born in the South West of France, in the city of Agen. She comes from a background where cooking and sharing family meals together is an everyday occurrence.

“I think my passion for good food comes from my grandmother, on my father’s side. She was a primary school teacher and a very good cook. She would never, or very rarely cook the same recipe twice. She cooked instinctively, using her senses and experience. I have particularly fond memories of her kitchen wallpaper, it was graph paper in style and was covered in handwritten recipes with dishes that she liked,” says Julie.

From a very young age Julie was also passionate about perfumes, and one of the most memorable presents she ever received from her parents was a perfumer kit to create her own combination of aromas. The very first significant memory of wine is from her 16th birthday when her granddad opened a special bottle of wine from the year of her birth.

“I remember being very excited by the idea of it and I decided to start reading about wine to try to understand it better,” she says.

Julie has been living in Ireland since 2004 where she has worked in some great restaurants, including Restaurant Patrick Guilbaud 2** Michelin, The Greenhouse 1* Michelin and Chapter One Restaurant 1Michelin (now 2) as sommelier-consultant. Since 2014, she’s been working free-lance in Ireland but also internationally consulting for restaurants, training people from the industry, hosting events and judging at international wine competitions such as the Decanter Wine Awards and the IWSC. Jule has been the brand Ambassador for Edward Dillon’s Champagne portfolio since 2015.

Julie Dupouy-Young has won the Best Sommelier in Ireland competition four times between 2009 and 2018 and in 2016, she finished 3rd at the ASI World Sommelier Championship representing Ireland and the Irish Guild of Sommeliers. She has been the Deputy Secretary General of the International Sommelier Association (ASI) since November 2020. In December 2020, Julie launched a new educational mobile application called SommNinja to help Sommeliers, wine students and wine lovers further their education and prepare for formal exams and certifications. Since September 2021, she has also been the wine editor for the Gloss Magazine.