About James | JB Wine Services

Credentials Wine Educator | Level 3 Certified Sommelier

For James De Smet-Bacon, wine has never been simply something to drink. It is a language, a record of place, and one of the most enduring ways people connect around a table.

His journey began in England and took a defining turn at a trestle table in Brittany, where fresh oysters met a glass of Muscadet he had once dismissed as cheap plonk. The pairing was elemental: salt, sea, wine, and place. In that moment, James understood that wine could hold far more than flavor. It could carry memory, culture, and discovery.

Today, based in Phoenix, James brings that experience to JB Wine Services. His tastings are informed, lively, and deeply human. Guests leave with more confidence, a sharper understanding of their own palate, and a story they will remember long after the final glass.

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Chapter one

A Life in Wine

From Brittany onward, wine became both vocation and lifelong study.

Peter Dominick’s, Leicester

James learned the discipline of the trade here: how stock moves, how a shop earns trust, how to answer a question honestly when the honest answer is that it depends. Each year brought the excitement of Beaujolais Nouveau, and with it a first lesson in how much of wine is anticipation, ritual, and shared occasion.

La Buvette, Omaha

In Omaha, James helped shape the wine culture at La Buvette, where serious bottles and unbuttoned hospitality lived comfortably in the same room. One evening, he poured for Debbie Reynolds. By the end of the night, she was beside him in the kitchen helping wash the dishes. The story has little to do with celebrity and everything to do with the kind of atmosphere James creates: informed, generous, and never too precious.

Beltramo’s, Palo Alto

His path later led to one of the country’s most respected wine institutions. Surrounded by thousands of labels, rare vintages, artisan beer, fine spirits, winemakers, collectors, and deeply knowledgeable customers, James sharpened both his palate and his ability to make complex subjects engaging. Working alongside people who knew a great deal, and serving people who wanted to know more, turned expertise into teaching.

Teaching and wine education

That instinct carried into the classroom at Stanford and into every tasting since. The subject is demanding, but the delivery does not have to be. James built a way of teaching wine that keeps the rigor and drops the ceremony.

Oak barrels stacked outside a weathered timber cellar

Chapter two

Encounters Worth Remembering

Across three decades, a handful of evenings stand out. Not for the labels on the table, but for what they revealed about the work.

The Night Rupert Symington Walked In

At Beltramo’s, James created an ambitious Port tasting spanning the wines and styles of the Symington family, including three rare vintage Ports sent from Portugal.

Word of the event reached Rupert Symington, who was in the Bay Area for a family graduation. James had never met him. Rupert heard what was taking place and made a point of coming to see it for himself.

He listened from the other side of the curtain as James guided the room through the history, people, and traditions behind the wines. At the end of the tasting, Rupert stepped inside and introduced himself.

His response stayed with James. He praised the experience for being sincere, historically accurate, informed, and inviting.

For James, that was the real measure of the evening. The goal was never simply to pour rare bottles. It was to make the world behind them come alive.

A Line James Never Forgot

Over the years, James became the person certain clients trusted with the bottles that mattered most. He remembers Silicon Valley leader and former Intuit chairman Bill Campbell putting that trust plainly:

“Nobody touches my wine but James. I trust him.”

It was brief, direct, and entirely Bill. For James, it meant more than praise for a particular bottle. It was trust earned through judgment, discretion, and knowing when the wine, the occasion, and the people at the table all had to be right.

Chapter three

What James Brings to the Table

History without the lecture. Expertise without the performance. Enough structure to help every guest discover something, and enough room for the evening to remain an evening.

Training

Wine Educator and Level 3 Certified Sommelier

Formal training in tasting, service, and the world’s wine regions, applied in the room rather than recited.

Teaching

Stanford background and sensory education

Years spent helping curious drinkers at every level connect aroma, memory, and flavor with confidence.

Manner

Storytelling, warmth, and wit

Confidence without pretense. Guests are guided, never tested, and the evening stays an evening.

Let’s pour something worth talking about.

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Every Bottle Has a Story. So Does James.