Brynhildur’s Blend: Physics And Oenology

A research engineer’s wine waitressing side gig

Research engineer Brynhildur Þorbjarnardóttir enjoys the best of two worlds — a stable corporate job and a fun side hustle that allows her to fulfil personal interests. Fridays can get busy when Brynhildur heads from Controlant straight to Vínstúkan, but she wouldn’t change a thing.

Brynhildur Þorbjarnardóttir, 26, a research engineer

My main job is as a research engineer for Controlant, a tech company that supplies the pharma supply chain with temperature and location loggers. For my side gig, I work as a wine waitress at Vínstúkan Tíu Sopar.

“I get paid for my hobby and I’m very lucky that my hobby pays.”

This is definitely not about money. I started working at Vínstúkan when I was finishing my studies at the University of Iceland. I completely fell in love with the vibe and just learning about wines in general. Then I was offered a job at Conrolant. I started that job after I had begun working at Vínstúkan, but it just never felt right to give up that aspect of my life — to be able to goof off and serve people wine on the weekends, even though I work all week. It’s kind of like I get paid for my hobby and I’m very lucky that my hobby pays. But also, since I am trying to save for an apartment, it’s definitely not a bad thing.

Long days, late nights

I try to work two weekends a month, either Friday, Friday and Saturday or just Saturday. I’m careful not to work too many days a month in both jobs to avoid burning myself out in either one.

On Fridays, I try my best to have a really good breakfast. I have my getting ready routine down to around 20 minutes, which includes taking a shower and doing my makeup. Living close to Vínstúkan is very convenient. The people who work with me there are very considerate. If something happens at my office job, for example, if I need to go to a meeting or finish a report, I can always call Vínstúkan and explain. My colleagues understand that my main focus is my main job.

Physics and wine are very different fields, but both of them are science. The biggest similarity between the two jobs is the constant need to communicate with people. It helps me with my presentations and my confidence at Controlant. I goof off a little bit more at Vínstúkan, but how I tackle meetings where I have to present something is very similar to how I tackle presenting a bottle of wine. I know that I know a lot about what I’m presenting, but I’m always ready for input if somebody thinks I’m wrong or something. Physically, the jobs are completely different — I’m on my feet all day at Vínstúkan, while at Controlant I sit at a desk.

My least favourite aspect of this side gig is that it sometimes drags out a little bit late. During the week, I wake up between 7:00-8:00 and on Fridays, I work at Controlant until around 16:00, and then I get to Vínstúkan from around 17:00, and I work until it closes around 2:00. Those are pretty long days.

The 150.000 ISK mystery

There’s a word “sjomli” in Icelandic, which is slang for “gamli,” meaning an old man. We have these types of customers every weekend. It’s basically the finance bro or the older banker who comes in after having dinner at Sumac or some other fancy restaurant, just wanting a really nice glass of wine. They always come up to the bar and say, “I want the Burgundy Pinot Noir.” But we don’t serve Burgundy Pinot Noirs by the glass, because they have to be very good for us to buy them, and consequently, they’re expensive. Burgundy is a very expensive region.

One of my most memorable moments was when we got a box of wine from one of our producers in Italy, and the label was not on. There were three or four different wines that we thought it might be, but we had no idea which one it was. One Saturday, during a quiet midday, when nobody was in Vínstúkan, I was just goofing around. I took one of the sharpies you can write on glass with and wrote “Mystery bottle, 150.000 ISK” on the unlabelled bottle that was probably worth a tenth of that price.

One night, a quarter before closing, there was a table of sjomlar — those older gentlemen always in their suits. I told them I had this wonderful bottle, especially for them. I had no idea what was in it, and they would probably not like it, but I knew they’d be intrigued. I almost sold them a bottle for 150.000 ISK but one of them said, “No, let’s just go to Apéro and get a bottle of Pinot Noir.” We still have that mystery bottle on our shelf. No one has bought it, and we still have no idea what it is.

Studying, sipping and serving

I’ve been studying oenology and wines for a while now. Last year, Vínstúkan paid for me to attend a small four-day course for level two qualification in wines taught at the WSET School in London. The plan is to do level three as well because then you can call yourself a sommelier, but it’s a little bit harder and fail rates are higher, so I want to be 100% ready. I do a lot of reading and try to gather information on my own.

Also, I recently started a small wine company with my friend Heiðrún, who works at Hressó. We offer wine tastings as a service, where we’ll come to our clients and host a tasting for them. We just launched last week and have already done one tasting, which is a great start. We visited a law firm and held a small tasting for them — it was a lot of fun. We’re trying to get this ball rolling on the side — it’s my third job!

Check out @Vínvísar on Instagram to book a wine tasting with Brynhildur and Heiðrún.

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