Meet the sommelier: Ava Mees List of Copenhagen's Noma restaurant

New York born and Amsterdam bred, Ava Mees List goes by her middle name, pronounced ‘Mase’. She has worked as a sommelier at Noma in Copenhagen since 2019, becoming the restaurant’s beverage director in 2022. Starting her career as a part-time bartender at an Art Deco literary café in Amsterdam after finishing her studies in cultural anthropology, she soon decided to dedicate her professional life to learning about and travelling for wine. From 2015 to 2018, Mees worked at sister restaurants Saturne and Clown Bar in Paris before moving to Copenhagen.

My first memorable wine experience I didn’t really get into wine (or hospitality) until I was 25. Two months after I started my first job at Café Schiller in Amsterdam, my then boss Florien took me along to a pretty raucous winemakers’ party at Cave St Martin in Roquebrun, Roussillon, France. The owner was a good friend of Marcel Lapierre [of Domaine Lapierre in Beaujolais] and the only drinks served were red wine, mulled red wine and coffee. We called it the Purple Teeth Festival and it made me fall in love with the natural wine community. Before that, my signature drink was a house tequila and bitter lemon highball – I never looked back.

[subscriber-content] My go-to everyday wines Jacques Lassaigne, Les Vignes de Montgueux made by Emmanuel Lassaigne. I know it is ridiculous to name a Champagne as an everyday wine, but during my time in Paris, I learned to disassociate the region from celebratory events. I keep a bottle in the fridge at all times.

My favourite supermarket buy I don’t believe in mass-produced, cheap wine, so I definitely don’t buy wine in a supermarket. If something is that cheap, somewhere in the world someone or something is paying the price. Also, support your local wine shop!

My most embarrassing moment at work Once I told one of our guests that she looked just like this actress from one of my favourite Hollywood movies. ‘Actually, that was me,’ she said. Oops! I had no idea she was originally Danish. I kind of floated away from the table but we had a good laugh about it together later that evening.

Pet peeve Some sommeliers tend to give extensive tasting notes, which I find kind of a turnoff – they can come across as imperative, and I prefer drinking with an open mind. For this reason, we do not do this at Noma.

My death row food and wine pairing Yvon Métras Fleurie and dim sum.

Best food and wine match at noma Currently, grilled artichoke hearts with a sauce of walnuts and truffle with a blueberry vinaigrette and wild-foraged greens from the beach, paired with an aged sake called Time Machine by Kinoshita Brewery on the north coast of Kyoto, served at room temperature.

My fallback quick after-work meal I make a Greek salad pretty much every day and occasionally I will bring back an open bottle from a pairing, like a light red or a Georgian white – but, truth be told, I rarely drink at home.

Wine I’m most proud of on my list During our time doing pop-ups in Japan (where I made an all-Japanese wine and sake pairing), we became closely connected to Beau Paysage, a Yamanashi domaine making beautiful wines. We have managed to bring them back to Copenhagen and I’m proud to serve them.

The biggest surprise on my list We get our fair share of sceptics afraid of the 100% natural wine list – I love surprising them with wines that might be recognisable to their palate but made without being filtered or heavily sulphured. It opens their mind to the broad spectrum of natural wine.

Wines I’d order on a restaurant list Get a Coteaux Champenois when you see it. With warmer vintages have come beautiful still wines from Champagne that go so well with food. Also, your sommelier’s eyes will likely instantly turn heart shaped when you ask them about it.

Wine region I’m most excited about For our upcoming Los Angeles pop-up I have just spent a month travelling around California, researching a wine region I never really had any interest in. I was lucky to meet some very special people making great wine in a market flooded with overly extracted oak bombs.

Wine style I really don’t enjoy drinking I know they’re all the rage, but aromatic skin-contact wines like Muscat are not really my jam.

Best value wine region right now Catalonia, Spain, and the other side of the border in southwest France.

My favourite wine region to visit Jura is like home. I love being in Arbois and having lunch at Le Bistrot des Claquets with my friend Florien Kleine Snuverink of Les Bottes Rouges (yes, the same Florien I worked with 16 years ago in Amsterdam) or sitting on the terrace of the Domaine de la Tournelle winebar/shed. Otherwise, Georgia , for all the reasons imaginable. What a place. Wow.