5 minutes with… James Clark, sommelier and founder, Sotto Enoteca & Trattoria

The time I spent in Australia and the level of hospitality out there inspired me. I fell in love with Italian food on the job – I worked for Vittoria Group in Edinburgh for a long time. Working alongside good chefs and sommeliers, I fell in love with Italian food and wine. There are 20 different autonomous regions in Italy and I think we’ve got wines from every region. You’re spanning 1,000 miles and a totally different range of climate, terroir, history and culture of winemaking. The most interesting thing for me about Italian wine is that native grapes are prized. It makes it fun as a sommelier, you can always offer a point of difference to people. We knew we would sell lots of Amarone, Barolo and Chianti, but Lambrusco actually is one thing that’s been really fun and interesting. There are loads of Italian wines that have suffered a bad reputational hangover from the ’90s, but if you get really nice Lambrusco, it’s such a good aperitivo. As a team we love Sicilian wines too and what we are passionate about tends to reflect in what we sell. Edinburgh’s getting to that stage where great restaurants are opening across the city, not just in the centre. That’s a really healthy thing that we should celebrate. The dining scene has become a lot more relaxed. More places like Sotto are opening, where we try to take the stuffiness and the intimidation out of things.