Local sommelier earns Wine Spectator’s Award of Excellence

Sophia Surrett | Daily Memphian

Amelia Gene’s sommelier Samuel Johnson remembers his first aha moment with wine: He was a senior in college studying mechanical engineering at the University of Memphis.

He sipped a nebbiolo, an Italian red wine from Piedmont, Italy, which he said tasted like crushed roses and had “super grippy tannins.” At the time, he tended to drink more popular American wines.

“Drinking this nebbiolo, you’re just like, ‘What on earth is this?’ And that just spiraled down the rabbit hole real quickly from there,” Johnson said.

He’s come a long way since then. Johnson won a Wine Spectator’s Award of Excellence on Tuesday, June 23, for Amelia Gene’s wine offerings.

‘No better accomplishment’

After graduating college, Johnson would set his engineering degree aside and enter the world of restaurants and hospitality instead.

He would eventually get into fine dining, spending time with Blake Parrish, then the sommelier at Southern Social.

“He took me under his wing and opened me up to the wonderful world of wine. My wallet has never thanked him or been the same since,” Johnson said. “It’s a whole world that ties into a lot of things that I’m already passionate about, like history and geography.”

Johnson said wine can be intimidating to people, with different flavors depending on a wine’s origin and the type of grape, but it comes down to whether a person likes what is in their glass.

“There’s no better accomplishment I can have during the shift than guiding the guests to choosing a fun wine that they never thought that they would choose,” Johnson said. “Getting to experience that first moment with guests like the one I experienced with the nebbiolo is just so much fun. That’s one of the things that keeps me going.”

A new focus on wine

Local developer Chance Carlisle opened Amelia Gene’s in 2023 at 255 S. Front St. after recruiting Chef Nate Henssler to be at the helm.

Henssler moved from Chicago with his wife Jessica, a hospitality veteran who became the restaurant’s general manager in 2024.

Jessica Henssler said they wanted to create a wine menu that stood out and knew they needed to hire a sommelier. They wanted someone who knew wine and the local distribution scene and could curate a wine list to go with the menu.

“I feel like our wine list didn’t have a direction at the beginning,” she said. “We were looking for someone with that focus.”

So they asked their liquor distributor representative, Johnson, if he knew anyone who would be good for the position.

Johnson said, “What do you think about me?”

Nate Henssler said he knew Johnson had the experience and a “sparkling personality” and was easy to talk to, so they hired him.Johnson has been at Amelia Gene’s for almost exactly one year and a week as of this writing.

“My focus wasn’t to come in and win awards,” Johnson said. “It was to come in and help seize the potential with Chef Nate’s vision and build on the team that Jess has broken her back trying to create. It’s truly a unique, once-in-a-lifetime opportunity that I am more than happy to take advantage of to work here.”

What’s next

In the past year, Jessica Henssler said, Amelia Gene’s wine list has made more sense and gotten a better sense of direction, but Johnson has also grown as a sommelier.

She said he is on the floor every night of service, talking to guests about what they like and answering questions about the hundreds of wines on the menu.

“Wine is intimidating, and it could come up as really pretentious,” she said. “Sam’s so great at talking with guests and having the enthusiasm with it. Having him on the floor has created a whole level of different experience for the guests.”

Nate Henssler said he and Johnson spend a lot of time together crafting the right pairings for the menu, which changes seasonally, as well as for weekly dinner specials.

“I hold myself to a high standard, and Sam is really pulling his weight,” he said. “If you’re not moving forward, you move backward. I think that’s the mentality we're always trying to push forward, change and get better.”

Johnson said his dad taught him that “excellence is measured in inches” and that everyone can get to 99, but it’s “the last little bit that separates excellent from good.”

“That’s something that’s always stuck with me when it comes to this, is always strive for that bit of excellence,” he said. “Moving into this Year 2, it’s really exciting. I’ve been coming into this with, ‘Let’s see how far we can take this.’”