Secrets to Properly Serving Wine

BARTENDER CONFESSIONS SECRETS TO PROPERLY SERVING WINE

By Justin Elliott, Certified Specialist of Spirits, Society of Wine Educators and Director of Mixology for Texas, Southern Glazer’s Wine & Spirits

True story—years ago, I was behind the bar working with a buddy, and we were getting our hats handed to us on a busy weekend. Our boss at the time, June Rodil (now a master sommelier and still a dear friend), came over to the service well to run some drinks. She looked at us both with great disdain and said, "Why can't you f@$&% cocktail bartenders use your wine keys instead of manhandling the foil on the BTG's? People are watching you!"

I will never forget it, and it changed the way I serve wine. Yes, the service well is challenging, and it’s easy to get myopic about just putting out drinks. But it’s important to remember, guests are most likely paying pretty good money to sit there, and they don’t want to watch a couple of brutes playing “skin the rabbit” on a bottle of Rhône. Here are other tips to serving wine that i'll bet you think you're getting away with, but are decidedly not soigné.

• Grabbing liquor bottles out of the well by the neck is commonplace but when presenting a wine, hold it from the base or even the punt (the little dimple on the bottom).

• You should already know what you’re pouring, so “face” the label and let the guest see it!

• Hit your mark! Dispensing the agreedupon amount of booze is pretty much #1 on any bartender job description. But since you don’t have jiggers or pour spouts when pouring by-the-glass wines, work visually and make sure you know precisely where on the wine glass the house pour should be.

• Conversely, when a party orders by the bottle, don’t just split that bottle four ways and rush back to banging out Mojitos. Instead, pour everyone just a couple of ounces. It gives them more opportunity to engage with the bottle and allows you to return to top them off and check on them.

• Don’t be a drip! Always finish each pour with a twisting motion and wipe the bottle’s lip to avoid the drip—and for crying out loud, change out your serviette from time to time!

• A wine glass is like a reverse mullet: it’s business on the bottom and a party on the top. Only handle it by the stem—the guest didn’t invite you to their party.

• When you find a chipped glass (or you straight-up smash one because, as we established, you’re a brute), make sure to add it to a running count and let management know so they can put more glasses into circulation or order more. We’ve all had to frantically polish wine glasses fresh out of the hot dishwasher, then try to chill them, all in the middle of the rush and, surely, we don’t ever want to do that again.