Rare Wines and Curated Cellars
Some wines are more than bottles. They are memories, milestones, investments, and stories waiting for the right moment.
Flying Sommelier helps private clients, collectors, hotels, restaurants, and investors source, assess, purchase, and enjoy rare wines. Whether you are looking for a birth-year wine, an iconic vintage, a legendary estate, or the foundations of your own cellar, JV Ridon brings decades of international sommelier experience, more than 50 harvests as a winemaker, and a trusted network across the wine world.
This service is designed for clients who want guidance beyond labels and scores. It is about understanding provenance, condition, maturity, drinking windows, market relevance, and emotional value.
Curated Cellar Advisory
JV Ridon can help you build or refine a cellar that reflects your taste, lifestyle, and long-term ambitions. From everyday prestige bottles to rare icons, each recommendation is selected with purpose.
Flying Sommelier offers:
- Sourcing of rare, mature, and collectible wines
- Birthday and anniversary vintage searches
- Iconic estate and legendary wine recommendations
- Private cellar creation and cellar strategy
- Assessment and valuation of existing cellars
- Advice on drinking windows, storage, and service
- Purchase of private collections where appropriate
- Wine selection for private dinners, gifts, and special occasions
- Restaurant Wine Progamme design and management
Cellar Assessment & Collection Purchase
A cellar is only valuable if its bottles are understood. JV Ridon assesses private collections with a sommelier’s eye, considering condition, provenance, ullage, label integrity, storage history, vintage quality, and market desirability.
Where relevant, Flying Sommelier may also assist with the purchase or resale of private collections, connecting owners with serious buyers and advising on the best route to value.
Expertise in Historic wines
JV Ridon also serves as technical advisor to the Amorim Clinic, developed by Amorim Cork South Africa, a programme created preserve South African historic wines by assessing and recorking legends, with the 1791 vintage being the oldest wine recorked by JV Ridon.
This experience adds a practical technical dimension to his work, especially when assessing older wines, private collections, or bottles intended for special events.
Passion for Pairing
JV Ridon is the author of Passion for Pairing, an award-winning book exploring the relationship between food, wine, culture, and pleasure.
The book reflects the same philosophy behind Flying Sommelier: wine should not be reduced to status or technical knowledge alone. It should create emotion, conversation, and memorable moments around the table.
Blind Ambition
JV Ridon also appears in Blind Ambition, the internationally acclaimed documentary following Zimbabwean sommeliers on their journey to the World Blind Tasting Championship.
The film captures the human side of wine: discipline, friendship, ambition, identity, and the power of tasting to open unexpected doors.
Looking for a rare bottle, a birth-year wine, or advice on your cellar?
Contact Flying Sommelier to discuss your collection, your occasion, or the wine you have always dreamed of finding here