Toni Johnson started out as an actress. She received her BFA in acting from California Institute of the Arts and worked as an actor for about ten years. For the past twenty plus years, Toni has been in the wine industry, working both in fine restaurants and as a buyer for area grocery stores.
Toni loves to share her information with others, always trying to ignite others’ interest in wines. She is a mentor to many people where she lives and teaches wine classes to the guests of The Capital Grille and to the employees. Toni suggests to anyone interested in entering the sommelier world that they begin tasting wines and reading on a regular basis. Find a wine education organization that sounds interesting and participate in their classes.
Toni’s favorite wine region is the Loire because she finds the wines to be interesting as they change so much from east to west. She is currently reading Rajat Parr’s Secrets of a Sommelier and recommends Champagne: How the World’s Most Glamorous Wine Triumphed over War and Hard Times.
She counts her best days as those when her kids were born and passing the Advanced Sommelier with the Court of Master Sommeliers as a close second. Toni is the only person in Wisconsin to have passed the Advanced Sommelier, and is looking forward to the New York competition.