Daniel Johnnes, founder

Daniel Johnnes’s love for French wine and culture was born early in life, thanks to a teenage trip on the advisement of his mother. A born and bred New Yorker, Daniel visited France for the first time in 1974 and immediately fell in love with the language, cuisine, wine and culture. This launched a life that took him through the great vineyards and kitchens of France, the restaurant cellars and dining rooms of his hometown, and ultimately to creating a business designed to share his love of French wine and culture with fellow Americans, which in turn has earned him two medals of honor from the French government for his career: the Chevalier de l’Ordre du Mérite Agricole (2016) and Chevalier de l’Ordre du Mérite (2023).

A Dedication to Service After graduating from college with a BA in French, Daniel returned to France to work in the kitchens of Guy Savoy in Paris followed by a stint in the Landes region of Southwestern France. When he returned to New York, he decided the hospitality and service that defined the front of house roles was where he was meant to be. This decision led him to Le Regence, where a young Daniel Boulud had recently assumed the position of Executive Chef.

In 1985, Daniel joined the team opening Montrachet in Tribeca, which won a Wine Spectator Grand Award and quickly became “New York’s finest wine restaurant,” according to that same publication. During that time, he began to curate wine dinners, hosting great winemakers from Burgundy and beyond. These dinners led Daniel to bring Burgundy’s acclaimed La Paulée de Meursault to New York in 2000, emulating the celebration at the end of harvest by presenting a week-long series of events to celebrate the wines and winemakers of Burgundy.

During his 20 years as the Wine Director at Montrachet and Drew Nieporent’s Myriad Restaurant Group, Daniel also started an import company featuring a curated selection of French wines, some never before imported to the United States. His first discoveries were from little known appellations such as Gaillac and Saint Pourçain. Over the years, he represented some of the most famous estates in Burgundy and beyond, including, among others, Domaine Georges Roumier, Domaine des Comtes Lafon, Domaine Roulot, Domaine Mugneret-Gibourg, Domaine Clusel-Roch, and Domaine de la Grange des Pères.

In 2005, Johnnes reunited with Daniel Boulud to become the corporate Wine Director for Chef Boulud’s Dinex Group. Their restaurant empire includes DANIEL, DB Bistro, Bar Boulud, Boulud Sud, Le Gratin, Joji, Le Pavillon and Epicerie Boulud in New York as well as locations in Florida, Montreal, Toronto, Singapore, Dubai, the Bahamas, and at sea on Celebrity Beyond. He also manages the wine program at American Express’s new Centurion New York lounge in the One Vanderbilt building.

Dubbed “the dean of American Sommeliers” by Jay McInerney in the The Wall Street Journal, Daniel is also dedicated to mentoring a new generation of sommeliers. In 2021, he created the Sommelier Scholarship Fund, a 501(c)3 organization that offers educational experiences to rising wine professionals to learn firsthand about the people, culture, winemaking, and terroir that so inspired Daniel during his first trips to France.

Awards & Acclaim Daniel’s career is studded with industry awards, including the highest honor bestowed on a wine professional in the United States - the James Beard Foundation’s Outstanding Wine and Spirits Professional of the Year, which he received in 2006. He was also named the Wine and Spirits Professional of the Year by Santé in 2000 and was honored as the nation's top sommelier by the James Beard Foundation in 1995, receiving the Outstanding Wine Service Award. Daniel’s honors from the French Republic recognize his outstanding services to the sector of agriculture and the furtherance of French culture overall, and are the highest tiers of national merit other than the French Légion d’Honneur. In 2018, Daniel received his third James Beard Award when he was honored as “Who’s Who of Food and Beverage in America.”

Rajat Parr and Jordan Mackay, in Secrets of the Sommeliers (TenSpeed Press, 2010), describe the “career paths of America’s four pioneering sommeliers (Larry Stone, Kevin Zraly, Daniel Johnnes and Fred Dame): “Stone, the wine genius; Zraly, the wine teacher; Johnnes, the inspirer; and Dame, the administrator and motivator: together they mentored a generation.” Today, in his role as founder of Pressoir, Daniel continues his mission to inspire by presenting the finest wine festivals, events and unique experiences, wine consulting, and an exclusive club. In addition to La Paulée, Daniel and the Pressoir team created La Fête du Champagne with wine writer and Champagne expert Peter Liem to educate consumers and promote the wines of Champagne, and La Tablée, an event celebrating the wines of the Northern and Southern Rhône Valley.

Through extensive relationships and long careers in wine, Daniel and his team have developed a comprehensive network of producers throughout France’s revered wine regions, ensuring they have their finger on the pulse of the market and are ready to celebrate and share French fine wine and culture as it continues to shine.

Edouard Bourgeois, Wine Director

As Wine Director for Pressoir, Edouard Bourgeois shapes the many individual events that bring to life the organization’s mission to showcase the wine and culture of France. Overseeing the themes, locations and culinary pairings of the U.S. events, Bourgeois is instrumental in the Pressoir guest experience, bringing his expertise in French wine to settings large and small.

Bourgeois came by his love of wine honestly. Born and raised in Champagne, France, his exposure to the great wines of his home country played a vital role in defining his career in fine wine. Through the hospitality business, he learned how to communicate his passion and knowledge to others. Driven by this passion, he landed himself a position as a sommelier at the Parisian Palace Hôtel de Crillon’s Restaurant Les Ambassadeurs. Here, under the direction of David Biraud, who was named Best Sommelier France in 2002, Bourgeois’s fascination with wine began to flourish. In 2005, he won first prize at the French National Trophée Mumm for student sommeliers, and caught the attention of lead judge and chef sommelier of the Les Crayères, Philippe Jamesse, who offered him a position upon graduation. He proceeded to work beside Jamesse for three years, honing the complexity of his palate and developing his expertise in the field.

Bourgeois moved to New York City in 2008 where he secured himself the role of sommelier at Restaurant DANIEL, Chef Daniel Boulud’s eponymous culinary temple, a position he held for five years. He was then promoted to head sommelier and wine buyer for Restaurant Café Boulud, the sister property to Restaurant Daniel in the iconic Upper East Side Manhattan. After three years, he moved back to France to work closely with the winemaking team of the illustrious Domaine Lapierre, pioneer winery in the natural wine world in Villie-Morgon for the 2017 harvest.

Today, he splits his time between the U.S. and France, overseeing the wine programs for the Dinex group restaurants, while also looking after the needs of the Pressoir Wine Club members and curating bespoke wine tours of France’s wine regions for small groups, visiting winemakers in their domaine, and thereby ensuring he stays perpetually connected to the two great loves that have shaped his life - wine and France.

Raj Vaidya, Director of Operations

Born in New Jersey but raised in his family’s native Bombay and in Singapore, Raj Vaidya attributes his passion for fine cuisine and stellar career in wine to his family and their obsession with food and drink.

Before joining Daniel Johnnes in 2020 and becoming instrumental in the growth of Pressoir, Vaidya achieved some of the wine world's most respected diplomas, including the Certificate Course of The Sommelier Society of America (2004), the Wine and Spirits Education Trusts Advanced Certificate (2004) and Diploma (2009). He has built a resume that features some of this country’s most celebrated wine lists and wine service, including New York’s Cru and Per Se, Gary Danko in San Francisco, Seeger’s in Atlanta, and Daniel Boulud’s eponymous restaurant where he ran the lauded wine program from 2009 to 2020 and from 2016 to 2020 served additionally as Chef Daniel’s International Wine Director. Vaidya’s wine experience also extends to the vineyards, having worked with Robert Sinskey Vineyards, a biodynamic estate in Napa and completed internships at Domaine de la Côte in Santa Barbara County and Domaine Roulot in Meursault.

Vaidya discovered his love of Burgundy, Champagne and the Rhône Valley early in his hospitality career at New Jersey’s Ryland Inn, where he worked with a chef who had a natural affinity for pairing food and winemaking. This experience directly translates to his collaboration with Daniel Johnnes, overseeing operations for Pressoir, where the festivals and curated events celebrate these very regions.

Vaidya’s role also extends to wine consulting for a host of companies in the hospitality and finance fields and managing the cellars of many of the country’s top private wine collectors. A graduate of Rutgers University with a Bachelor of Arts degree in political science and philosophy, he leverages his extensive wine knowledge and relationships, plus his hospitality business acumen, to curate wine collections for individuals, collectors and investors, and to provide guidance in the fine art of collecting and investing.

Jaime Dutton, Executive Director

When Jaime Dutton assumed the position of executive director of Pressoir in 2007, it was the culmination of a journey that arguably began at age 11 with a visit to France and a small sip of wine. That early exposure to French wine and culture charted the course of her professional life, making her role of growing the Pressoir organization and its portfolio of seminal wine festivals and experiences a natural extension of her personal passions.

Dutton’s bona fides in all things French have been earned through achieving a BA in French from University of Pennsylvania, during which she studied at La Sorbonne; earning her Masters Degree in the International Wine Trade from the University of Dijon, for which she was based in Beaune at the heart of Burgundy; serving as the Export Sales Manager of Maison Champy, one of Burgundy’s boutique negociants, where she established the brand in the New York market as well as in Europe and Asia.

Dutton further honed her expertise by cycling and dining her way around France, exploring beautiful and remote corners of the country, visiting vineyards and choosing wines with sommeliers at the top tables in France and developing hospitality skills as a bike tour guide. It was Maison Champy that served as Dutton’s bridge to Daniel Johnnes, who was the New York importer at the time. In 2001, she attended La Paulée for the first time and discovered the serious Burgundy collecting scene in New York.

Before returning to the U.S. in 2006, Dutton also explored the wines of Spain, spending two years in Madrid as the Export Director for Bodegas Riojanas (Rioja) and Bodegas Torreduero (Toro). However, it was her native country and her love of Burgundy that ultimately drew her home. As part of the Pressoir executive team, Dutton has sought to build on the success of La Paulée, expanding the festival beyond New York, and creating new festivals such as La Fête du Champagne and La Tablée, through which she seeks to create experiences for wider audiences to discover a lifelong passion through a simple sip of wine.

Nikita Malhotra, Head sommelier

Nikita Malhotra was born and raised in New York City and went to Rudolf Steiner School, a Waldorf School. This education informed her about biodynamic farming, which imbued her early career in the wine world with a purpose to seek out sustainable and responsible vignerons. During high school she started working at an academic bookstore and quickly knew she wanted to major in Philosophy once she got to Goucher College outside Baltimore. After 6 years of working at independent bookstores, she realized that perhaps her dream of owning a bookstore might not come to fruition. Wishful thinking of culinary school led to availability for a wine course and from there a love of the hospitality industry. At the age of 25 she became the General Manager and Wine Director of Tangled Vine, a wine bar with around 150 selections of all organic or biodynamic from the old world. After a year she joined the wine team at Tribeca Grill, working under David Gordon and being part of a Wine Spectator Grand Award winning program. David Gordon inspired her love of Grenache and an appreciation for Rhone wine. Five year later she found herself at Momofuku, as the Head Sommelier at Wayo. With the pandemic she shifted to retail and consulting and in 2021 came back to Momofuku as the Beverage Manager for Ko. During her tenure the list had grown with a focus on Burgundy and Champagne. She has been recognized as New York’s best Sommelier by the Michelin Guide in 2022 and the list won the Grand Prix Star Wine List Award for New York City in 2023.

Max Goldberg Liu, Director of Communications

In the words of Daniel Johnnes, Max Goldberg Liu “is Brooklyn born with the soul of a Frenchman. Maybe even a Burgundian.” Some of this may have been achieved thanks to a relationship with the Johnnes family going back to early childhood and a trip to Burgundy and Alsace with Johnnes at the age of 13 as a friend of Johnnes’ eldest son. A BA in French and a year spent at the University of Western Brittany as an English language assistant further honed his fluency in French language and culture and interest in wine, which led him to begin working with Johnnes in 2012.

Over the past 10-plus years, Goldberg Liu has developed his proficiency in French wine from the ground up, initially managing Johnnes’ import portfolio, working two harvests in Burgundy, and traveling and tasting extensively throughout France’s wine regions, while helping organize dozens of editions of Pressoir’s wine festivals, La Paulée, La Fête du Champagne, and La Tablée, along with Pressoir’s ongoing programming. These experiences have informed Goldberg Liu’s role as Pressoir's Director of Communications and as a trip leader for the Sommelier Scholarship Fund. He is dedicated to translating French wine culture and the passionate work of the winemakers to an expanding American audience, with a particular focus on making old world domaines more accessible to a new generation of wine consumers.

Justine Puaud-Sylvestre, Event Coordinator & Client Relations

Justine was born and raised in France, in the Loire Valley region. Like many French children she often got a sip of wine in her parent’s glass during dinner time. But her passion for wine really grew when, at 23 years old, she went to Dijon for a business school interview. She spent 2 days in Burgundy driving around the vineyards with her father and that stuck with her.

Despite Burgundy leaving an unforgettable impression, she moved to Bordeaux and got an MBA in Marketing and Management of Fine Wine. Thanks to this international program, she acquired a depth of knowledge in the wine and spirits trade from all over the world and an understanding of cultural differences related to business.

During her time in Bordeaux, she worked as a Marketing and Communication Assistant for the Wine Syndicate of Saint-Emilion. There she learned about the right bank of Bordeaux, met fantastic winemakers and worked on the production of important French wine festivals such as Vinexpo Bordeaux, Bordeaux Fête le Vin and the Saint-Emilion Jazz Festival.

Later, she joined a marketing and design agency specialized in wine and spirits as a Business Development Executive. There she spent her time working on marketing strategies, branding and storytelling for innovative wine estates, as well as prestigious Champagne and Cognac houses.

In 2015 Justine moved to New York City and worked as a Marketing and Sales Associate for Acker Merrall & Condit, oldest wine shop in America and a leading wine auction house. She remembers fondly her first auction there, it was the best wine tasting she’d ever attended and she quickly understood that New York was a special place to live and discover some of the best wines in the world. In addition to the auctions, she had the chance to be part of exclusive rare wine dinners with unique wine selections from the likes of LaLa’s, Domaine de la Romanee Conti, and Biondi Santi.

When presented with the opportunity to work with Daniel Johnnes and La Paulée, she asked her husband “what do you think?”. She saw stars in his eyes and understood. An integral part of the team since 2016, she is proud to be part of the production of the best wine festivals in the world. Bringing people together is what she loves about her job and what she is committed to!

She recently moved back to France to get closer to her family but also the winemakers as she is living in Burgundy. She can’t wait to welcome you to France and show you her beautiful country! If you want to travel with Pressoir.wine, she is your right contact.