Inddee's Thanakorn ‘Jay’ Bottorff on why we should talk more about wine lists
The wine list at Bangkok’s Michelin-starred Inddee was named the Best Medium-Sized List in the world at this summer’s Star Wine List of the Year International Final. Head Sommelier Thanakorn Bottorff, known as Jay, travelled to Vienna to accept his Gold Star in person, telling us just how excited he was to help celebrate wine lists in all their glory.
“I think, for me, when we talk about sommeliers, most people talk about how skilful they are at the table, talking with the guests, or maybe the wine pairing,” says Thanakorn ‘Jay’ Bottorff, Head Sommelier at Inddee, an über smart, modern Indian restaurant in Bangkok and one of our Gold Star winners at the Star Wine List of the Year International Final 2025.
“But I think the wine list is the most underrated part of the sommelier role – people should talk more about the wine list.”
It’s one reason why the Thai sommelier joined the Star Wine List team in Austria this past June, along with sommeliers from a further 20 countries, as we revealed the global champions in our annual wine list competition. The awards are designed to honour the hard work and creativity of the people who create the world’s wine lists – something that Jay, for one, would like to see more of.
“I feel the list sometimes is being ignored. So I’m happy. This is the main reason that I want to support Star Wine List, because you see something that I want to motivate in people to see even more.”
The other reasons for his trip? The museums – after two full days spent in Vienna’s MuseumsQuartier, Jay was still not satisfied (“it needs at least five days to see the whole thing”) – and the wine, of course: “there’s a lot of all my favourite wineries here in Vienna.”
A truly deserving wine list
Opened in June 2023, Inddee serves contemporary Indian cuisine within an architecturally arresting historical villa in the lively Bang Rak neighbourhood of Bangkok. Despite the irrefutable finery, the restaurant has earned plaudits – and a Michelin star – for the way it combines warm, charming service with exemplary standards. And that goes for its two-strong wine team, too.
In 2024, Jay became the first Thai to win the country’s Michelin Sommelier Award, that same year taking two Gold Stars at the Star Wine List of the Year Asia competition, hosted in Hong Kong. This year, he upped those Golds to four, dominating our Asian contest before heading to Vienna to claim victory for Best Medium-Sized List on the international stage.
Judge Stephen Wong MW commented that Inddee’s “beautifully designed list shows a steady hand and breaks the mould. It presents the vast world of wine in short-form narratives which are approachable and interesting to a broad swathe of diners. The curation and selection are top notch, demonstrating a deep insight into vineyards, producers and vintages from all over the globe. It respects tradition and the classics while also being unafraid of celebrating diversity and creativity – everything one could ask for in a wine list.”
Jay impressed the whole room at our awards ceremony with his constant, though somewhat bashful, smile and his humility. During his acceptance speech, he thanked Inddee’s owner, Rajesh, for giving him “complete freedom to build this dream wine list” and his right-hand woman, Nan.
The heart of Bangkok’s sommelier scene
Bar a few months spent in Macau and Chicago, Jay has “always, always” lived in Bangkok. His first sommelier role was at Elements, at The Okura Prestige Bangkok hotel back in 2013, where he met his half-French, half-Canadian mentor, who encouraged him to pursue his WSET and CMS exams. These days, Jay follows both educational tracks but is currently focused on his Advanced Sommelier qualification with the CMS, which he hopes to complete in 2026.
“For me, I tried to do WSET Level 4 and, the more I studied it, I was like, ‘I would never bring this kind of subject or topic on the table with a guest’ because it’s already beyond normal conversation. So for me, WSET Level 3 is something that we can, as sommeliers, use on the table and talk about with the guests – give them knowledge and stuff.”
He has watched the “slow evolution” of Bangkok’s wine scene for quite some time.
“I would say, in the past 10 years, it’s moving much faster than before. And it’s been very noticeable in the past year – a lot of wine bars are opening right now. And there’s a lot of new-generation sommeliers who want to learn more – they won’t take any time off education, like the CMS is becoming a big trend for all the sommeliers in Bangkok right now. So it’s very cool.”
Marrying Indian food to wine
Jay’s wine list at Inddee is intended “to make people smile, make them happy” and therefore includes more than 100 by-the-glass pours, wine games and various pairing flights. He is conscious of the potential for overwhelm in guests facing a large wine selection, and the intimidating prospect of asking a sommelier for help.
“I think a wine list is something that should be fun, should be entertaining, should be very approachable to all types of guests,” he says. Hence his easily navigable list, in which “the more you read, it’s more like story-telling – about the philosophy of winemaking and introduction to each grape variety but in a very casual way.”
The food at Inddee is a refined and modern take on Indian cuisine, taking inspiration from the whole country. Jay notes the particularity of pairing wines with Indian spices as opposed to European flavours.
“It becomes much trickier,” he says. “I would say, my first few months at Inddee, I struggled to be very honest. And then I started to learn about the chef, what he’s doing with his spice, why he’s put the heat on that dish. And the more I learned his philosophy, the more I understood what type of wine I should pair with it.”
For this reason, Inddee’s diners are more inclined than ever to trust in the sommeliers’ recommendations “because they don’t know which direction they should take,” Jay explains. “But I’m happy because most of them go for wine pairings, which is something that, as a sommelier, I think everyone takes personally.”
The wine list currently focuses on the Old World by around 70%, and Jay’s favourite wine countries have “for quite some time” been Portugal and Spain.
“You can find a lot of extremely value-for-money Portuguese wine. Sometimes, I see the price and I’m like, ‘It’s that cheap? Are you sure? Dude, I can pay more!’ I love a wine region like Portugal, which most people maybe never heard of but, if I’ve been asked for a glass of white, I always start with some nice Portuguese hidden gem, like an artisanal producer, and most guests are like, ‘This is nice. Where is it from? Is it French?’ No, it’s Portugal.”
What next?
Jay is currently focusing on his Advanced Sommelier studies, aiming to take his exams in Hong Kong next year, and is eyeing up a second Michelin star for Inddee within the next two years.
And now that he’s made so many friends among the European sommelier community after spending nearly two weeks in Vienna, he’s got a long list of other restaurants to visit. Perhaps he’ll have another Star Wine List trip in 2026...
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