Wine Waiters

WINE WAITERS IN WAITING THE FUTURE OF THE SOMMELIER

Anyone who has an interest in wine may be suited to the career of sommelier, even without having professional qualifications, This is a calling that is well-nigh vocational, bearing in mind that the working conditions are not appealing. Although the daily starting time is fixed, the going home time is not, and most sommeliers will be free to eat with their families only on their days off. Sommeliers are a somewhat recent innovation, but even so it has been maintained that they are not really necessary, and when in a recent radio interview, I proposed that they are potentially a dying breed, I was inundated with protests from every sommelier around, as well as from the President of the sommeliers’ association of

Spain. WORDS ANDREW LINN

Sommeliers used to be known as wine waiters, but thanks to the plethora of educational courses offering an entrance into the profession – 41 in Andalucía alone – it is now easier to become one. Soon Spanish TV will start airing shows like those screened in the USA, in which sommeliers compete against each other in blind tastings and wine quizzes. The recent Netflix film, Somms, was a big hit, and as a result – it is claimed – sommeliers rocketed to the top of the industry’s popularity ratings in the same way chefs did two decades previously. Never mind that the four American real-life stars of Somms abandoned the profession shortly after the film was aired. The financial rewards are not overly attractive, and much less than they should be for working hours that are definitely not family-friendly. A sommelier cannot go home until the last customer has finished the final drink. Promotion prospects are also usually very limited, without moving to another location.

Disappointingly, most restaurant customers consider a sommelier’s job to be little more than taking orders, opening bottles and pouring wine. Indeed, few customers acknowledge that sommeliers are professionals with qualifications that may have taken years to obtain. In Europe this is perhaps not important, but in the USA, membership of the Guild of Master Sommeliers is essential – and to obtain it will imply a considerable cost. The top title, Britain’s Master of Wine, is generally too good for a sommelier’s job, and the price of achieving it, roughly €18.000, is not a viable investment. In Japan the business is taken very seriously. The Japan Sommelier Association has issued 30,000 lapel pins to those who have passed their exams but was aghast to discover that fake pins were being sold online for $300,000 each.

A retired wine waiter from one of Marbella’s best-known establishments admits to little more than a rudimentary knowledge of wine. Fortunately, this wasn’t a problem since most customers never order anything beyond the same limited range of wines on the list, comprising a staple number of Riojas and Ribera del Dueros.

Sommeliers have the right to be offended if they are not treated with the respect they deserve. Usually, however, they are expected to remain reserved and to comply with what they are being asked. On the brighter side, watch the pleasure on a sommelier’s face when requested to recommend a wine, or even better, wines, to accompany a meal. As the host at a lunch the other day in a well-known Marbella restaurant instructed the sommelier, ‘Please select the wines according to the food we order, and if anyone is not happy, offer an alternative without question’. He could have added, ‘Price range: whites at a maximum 35 euros and reds up to 60 euros, and if you can surprise us, so much the better’.

Assuming that the sommeliers’ business is wine, what about the new tendency for ‘sommeliers’ for mineral water, tea, coffee, even cigars? It might be over critical to suggest that this is just a trick to inflate the bill, but it often seems like that. e

REAL

de La Quinta