Somm-antic Drift
Jirka Jireh makes it a point to challenge the status quo and encourage marginalized folx to take up space in whatever industry sparks passion for them, including wine & spirits. A few years ago Jireh left New York for the West Coast in order to connect with what she saw as the inception of a grassroots push to increase BIPOC & LGBTQIA+ representation amongst domestic natural winemakers and the reclaiming of Black and Brown farming practices. In 2020, Jireh organized The Price of Admission, a workshop on bias and sexual assault in the wine world which equipped a network of professionals with language and tools to combat these issues across the country. Later, Jirka would become the Co-Founder of Industry Sessions, a digital wine education program exclusively for marginalized people that spans 14 cities in the US and Canada. Behind the scenes, Jirka uses her network as a tool to advocate for BIPOC in the winemaking sphere and connects like-minded professionals with business opportunities. Her leading voice has become associated with interrogating misogyny and white supremacy within our industry with a focus on restructuring the ways in which we activate & influence change throughout beverage spaces.
Her work has been celebrated in the pages of The San Francisco Chronicle, The Los Angeles Times, Forbes, Imbibe, Cherry Bombe Magazine, Pipette, Punch, and Wine Enthusiast to name a few. In 2021 she was even invited to host an episode of “Mind of a Sommelier”, a spin-off to PBS’ “Mind of a Chef”.
When she is not mentoring, educating, or diving into regenerative farming practices she spends her free time pouring wine at events in community centered spaces that highlight foods of the Diaspora, zipping around the country to show love and support to the various radical beverage businesses founded by her BIPOC & Queer colleagues or popping to the West Coast to check on her winemaking projects.
The majority of Jirka Jireh’s 15 years in hospitality were fine-tuned in New York City’s bustling fine-dining world. She is currently based in NYC where she runs Industry Sessions and consults on a variety of groundbreaking projects geared at reclaiming wine spaces for all people.