EDITOR’S LETTER
VOLUME 14 - ISSUE 4
GUEST EDITOR JESSE CYR
Photo by Emily Thomas
Serving wine can be intimidating. Whether you work at a wine bar, a fine dining establishment, or a neighborhood cocktail lounge, the methods can vary greatly. How do I hold the bottle? Who tastes it first? Will I be judged for opening the bottle with a corkscrew instead of a twoprong opener? Those were some of the questions on my mind every time I approached a table. It would stress me out that I’d say or do something wrong. That’s because I never got the proper training early on. Wine service, at least for me, was like being thrown to the wolves and hoping you could figure it out.
I remember once I was serving a table that had brought their own wine, and the host asked me to open it but to be careful as it was an older vintage, and the cork could break. That put me on edge. I fumbled for my wine key, trying not to mess up. I screwed it in, pulled, and snap! It broke. And to make things worse, the other half of the cork fell into the bottle. Luckily, the guests weren’t paying attention, so I announced I would decant it. That sounded like a pro move to me at that moment. Hiding in the server station, I quickly dumped the wine into a decanter. After about five minutes of panic and trying to get the cork out, it finally emerged. I returned to the table triumphant and poured a taste. The host looked in the glass, then at me, and kindly let me know there were some cork fragments in it. I had forgotten to strain it before decanting. Certainly not my finest hour. It wasn’t until I began working at L’Oursin, a French restaurant and natural wine bar in Seattle that I finally relaxed about wine service. Their approach was to offer unique natural wines in a non-pretentious and relaxed atmosphere. Much like the classic French cafés that dot the boulevards of Paris, we had just one glass size. Everything from big, bold reds to sparkling wine was poured into it. The owners and the wine director were proactive about educating the staff about what we were serving. Whether it was a glass or a bottle, we were opening wine frequently, tasting together, and talking about it. There’s no better way to speak to a guest about wine being offered than by tasting it. That was the first time I received any training about wine in my career, and I had already been working in the industry for eight years! It sure was way overdue, and well, as we all know by now, practice makes perfect.
Jesse Cyr
Jesse started working in hospitality after he left his acting career in Los Angeles and moved to Seattle. Over his ten years in the industry, he has worked at everything from mom & pop bars to corporate hotels and even created cocktails for some of the top spirits brands around the world today. Currently, Jesse is the Beverage Manager at the Fairmont Olympic Hotel in Seattle and finds no better pleasure than making guests drinks and seeing them have a great time.
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CHILLED MAGAZINE
