Jocelyn Cambier is a Wine Law Consultant and began working with Lehrman Beverage Law in 2023. He has massive and unparalleled experience with wine and wine law — but also with beer, spirits and other alcohol beverages. Beyond most others whether lawyers or not, Jocelyn has experience on the business, production, importing, wholesale, law and retail sides of the global beverage industry.
Jocelyn came to the United States from France in 1981 (after working on the Riviera as a “solid guitar player”). He has over 40 years of experience working in the alcoholic beverage industry, starting as a sommelier in several high-profile restaurants in Boston and Washington, DC. Before the end of the decade, Jocelyn was elected best sommelier in the US in by Food & Wine Magazine. The Washington Post has compared Mr. Cambier to the top wine experts in the US:
One would do well to memorize names such as Robert Kacher Selections, Kysela Pere et Fils, Terry Thiese Selections, Winebow, Vinifrance, Kermit Lynch, Weygandt-Metzler, Vintex, Wine Traditions, Class Wines, William-Harrison and others, whose strip labels adorn the bottoms or backs of the wines they import. While no one bats a thousand, choosing wines from such quality-oriented houses is one of the best ways of cutting through the retail wine fog. Recently, this select group has been joined by former sommelier Jocelyn Cambier. The French-born Cambier will be a familiar figure to devotees of the late, lamented Le Pavillon, Provence and Yannick’s restaurants, where he worked as a captain/sommelier for master chef (and wine taster extraordinaire) Yannick Cam. In his new import venture, called J. Cambier Imports, Cambier hopes to reach out to discerning wine lovers in all price ranges. My recent tasting shows that he has succeeded admirably.
Jocelyn opened his own wine import company in 1997 and ran it successfully for over 20 years. Along the way, Jocelyn gained substantial experience staying compliant with federal and state laws covering alcohol beverages. Jocelyn’s tremendous knowledge with compliance issues includes but is not limited to TTB label approval rules and regulations (beer, wine and spirits), TTB formula rules, and various FDA requirements pertaining to beverages of all sorts. He has worked extensively and directly with TTB and various state agencies throughout the past several decades.
Mr. Cambier is a graduate of Universite D’Orsay, Paris, France. He is fluent in French, English and Spanish.
Jocelyn can be reached at jcambier@bevlaw.com and 703-543-9580.
