Snezhana’s first vocational education stems from her childhood dream of having her own restaurant. This came true in 2014 when she opened the Moltobuono wine bar in St Petersburg together with friends Vasily Sirotkin and Ivan Dmitriukov.

Her wine journey began with a love of foreign languages and restaurant service. This led her to the Millesime sommelier school in St Petersburg, where Snezhana now also lectures on the wines of Burgundy.

From 2011 to 2014, she worked as a sommelier in some of St Petersburg’s top restaurants and as head sommelier in the restaurant IL Lago dei Cigni.

In 2015, Snezhana continued her studies at the prestigious CFPPA University in Beaune in the heart of Burgundy, where she successfully completed their internationally renowned course on the wines and terroir of Burgundy.

In 2016, together with partners Vasily and Ivan, Snezhana established the wine trading company DILETANT. WINE, which they are continuing to expand. They not only manage the company, but also select the wines, interact with winemakers and cooperate with sommeliers. They present each wine in Russia personally, thus introducing restaurants to their favourite wines. They focus on terroir wines from small artisanal producers from Italy, France, Germany, Austria, Portugal and Spain, who work with minimal intervention and a traditional approach to winemaking. The company’s portfolio now includes around 30 producers whose wines can be found both in some of the world’s top restaurants, such as Noma, Septime, Mugaritz, Osteria Francescana and Mirazur, as well as Russia’s best restaurants.

Snezhana is not yet looking to specialise too narrowly, although she does try to seek out terroir wines crafted from indigenous grape varieties from all around the world, crafted by the hands and soul of a winemaker — energising wines which speak of their origins.

This quest is also underpinned by her desire to learn from the best. For example, from 2016 to 2018, Snezhana studied at the Austrian Wine Academy in Rust, successfully completing the prestigious WSET Diploma and earning the title of Wineakademiker with her thesis entitled "Is natural wine a new niche in the Russian wine market or simply a fad?" This was recognised as the best work of 2018.

In 2018 and 2019, Snezhana judged at the Vinitaly 5Star Wines international wine competition in Verona.

Snezhana is particularly proud to have studied with one of the most renowned wine experts in Italy, Ian D’Agata, including courses at the Vinitaly International Academy in 2017 and 2018, resulting in the title of Italian Wine Ambassador. From 2019 to the present, she has also been studying with Ian D’Agata at the 3iC Academy and is currently the only 3iC specialist in Russia.

Snezhana has also gained experience at various wineries: working the 2018 harvest at the Sarnin-Berrux estate in Burgundy with one of the region’s best winemakers, Jean-Marie Berrou, and the 2019 harvest at the Le Raisin et L’Ange estate in the Ardeche with winemaker Gilles Azzoni.

Her food for the soul is teaching at the Millesime sommelier school in St Petersburg and the Gorizont sommelier studio in Moscow.