PORTLAND WINE WEEK 2024 FEATURE: SOMMELIER Cecily Upton of Friends & Family
Sponsored by Buoy Local.
Introducing the Portland Wine Week Sommelier Showcase, brought to you by Buoy Local. Portland, Maine, may be a small city, but it has an outsized reputation for wine and food thanks to the talented culinary stars behind its mouth-watering menus. When it comes to wine, Portland is dominated by women wine professionals who work hard to bring you the best bottles from across the globe. This series spotlights 10 women Sommeliers pouring phenomenal wine all Portland Wine Week-long!
Victoria’S Portland Wine Week Events:
WEEKLONG: THE FUTURE (OF WINE) IS FEMALE @ FRIENDS & FAMILY
GRAND OPENING WOMEN IN WINE DINNER: WHO PAIRED IT BETTER? SPONSORED BY BANGOR SAVINGS @ FALMOUTH COUNTRY CLUB
“We are a small state, but I think the wine we get here punches far above our weight.” Says Cecily Upton as she scans her library of wines from around the globe. She hesitates over a bottle and tells us a story about the producer, but she could be talking about much of her collection: a boutique, innovative, women-owned, and underrepresented winery from some unsung region that piqued her interest.
Cecily describes Friends and Family as “a low-key spot to enjoy truly delicious wine and food, without any fussiness.” Adding that they are inspired “by the best little European cafes – have a little drink, have a little snack, have a little chat, leave happy.” The bar is the kind of place where industry regulars flock. Monday Pizza Nights in particular bring in the local crowd. On any given day you can waltz in and grab a delicious slice of the “Grandma” pizza, a thick, Sicilian-style slab for $8, one of the best deals in town.
Their wine list is ever-changing but Cecily always makes sure there’s something great on the menu to pair with their menu, which usually consists of small plates that stick to the classics. Various cheeses and charcuterie are always offered, and at the moment they have a delicious steak tartare. There’s also a sweet, housemade Calabrian sausage with black lentils and confit fennel that is, as Cecily put it, “chef’s kiss!”
Cecily is the type of wine professional who runs the show with years of industry experience under her belt, and doesn’t need a certification or diploma to prove her worth. One look at her retail shelf and you’ll see a sommelier who has tasted her way through regions big and small and ferreted out the best for her audience. She captivates lovers of funky, natural wines, while also making shelf space for more traditional expressions that classically and thoughtfully represent their terroir. Regarding this, she notes, “I was working on a farm in Italy when I was 22 and had my first taste of Primitivo, an iconic grape from Southern Italy that just tastes like that place – warm, ripe, dusty – and I realized that I had just had an experience of true terroir and I understood why people felt wine was important.”
Always with quality in mind, Cecily also hones her offerings based on the producer’s story “I love being able to showcase innovative and inspirational makers in our shop.” For Portland Wine Week, she’ll be going through her selections and marking which wines were made by women for her event The Future (of wine) is Female, and the by-the-glass offerings will be exclusively by women winemakers. Head over to Friends and Family during Portland Wine Week to get to know producers that don’t always get the spotlight. Cecily’s thrilled to be bringing in wines from Emilie Mutumbo, a BIPOC female producer from Spain. Also featured are wines from Las Fermentadas, a project helmed by Alice L’Estrange which gives a platform to any woman who would like to make natural wine collaboratively at her winery as a team; and wines from La Montanuela, a project of Camila Carrillo, a Colombian winemaker producing beautiful wines and co-ferments in Vermont.
Cecily is also one of the talented sommeliers competing in the Grand Opening: Women in Wine Dinner: Who Paired It Better? Sponsored by @bangorsavings.
