The sommelier’s tale

Arnold Vorster, sommelier at the Cape Grace’s One.Waterfront restaurant speaks of the pleasures and frustrations involved in serving wine

I  sometimes try to convince people that tasting wine for a living is hard work, but I am glad that I do not have to extract rotten teeth for a livelihood, as I would if my parents had had their way. Luckily, my dad has always been an avid wine collector and it was not long after being weaned that I started taking an interest in his cellar. Which led, eventually, to where I am now.

Being a sommelier and dealing with a lot of both foreign and local travellers you tend to build up profiles of types, their likes and dislikes, their idiosyncrasies – including those which really get you fuming at the ears. Generally, though, talking to people about Cape wines and seeing the pleasure they can give is a source of great job satisfaction.

Of course, there are occasions when any offer of assistance is met with immediate suspicion. And generally you have only one opportunity to prove yourself – one bad bottle can ruin your reputation for a guest, although when your advice is seen to be reliable and good you are a liberator. Working in wine retail for some time before I decided to venture into the sommelier business helped give me insight into the psychology of the customer or guest. The importance of establishing trust is probably the most important lesson that I have learned, when selling a product that changes from vintage to vintage and even from month to month. But if you approach Mr Know-it-All, and do not immediately mention the obvious, you are immediately put down as a charlatan.

The one question I always try to avoid answering is the inevitable ‘What is South Africa’s best wine?’ ‘Well, sir, it all depends on what you enjoy...’ is about as far as one can go. How can you really compare shiraz and cabernet in terms of quality? Is merlot superior to a blend or vice versa? Customers do not always understand that a producer can be sold out – ‘Can’t they just make more?’ or ‘When will you get more stock in?’, as if we can just switch that Thelema machine back on.

For foreign visitors the prices asked for some of these ‘best’ wines are ludicrously low. It can be different for locals, some of whom do not seem to appreciate that the term ‘value for money’ is a relative concept. There are certainly some who you know will happily spend R50 on a car wash but balk at paying that for a bottle of reasonable wine.

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The sommelier is the hospitality industry’s link between the producer and the consumer (the guest in this case). We are restaurants’ moles in the wine industry and it is time that more hotels and restaurants realised the need to have an ear to the ground, at a time when advance knowledge and product knowledge is very important. Nowhere in the hospitality industry, except for the chef’s work, does one product need so much attention, from selection though to quality control, selling, pricing, training and educating.

I remember one incident which almost drove me to teetotal-ism or at least to abandon serving wine. A restaurant guest (who, I later learnt, had something of a history of causing problems) ordered a bottle of good Paarl Shiraz, but after trying it decided that it was not to his liking. I tasted the wine and was happy to declare my confidence in the quality of the wine and its soundness. But he asked me to recommend something else, insisting that I make a selection, without bringing the wine list. After extracting some information on his preferences in wine, I suggested a very good local Pinot Noir, and he agreed. So he sniffed and tasted and was happy with that bottle.

When the time came for him to take his bill before going off to his snooze, he let me know that he was not prepared to pay for either of the two bottles he had caused to be opened. It seems I had earlier suggested that he would not be charged for the Shiraz; furthermore, he would never have ordered such an expensive wine as the Pinot. (Please believe that, in fact, any sommelier worth his tastevin would confirm a price with a guest before opening a bottle – as I had – precisely to avoid such embarrassing situations.) Well, after some negotiations he finally paid for the Shiraz, but the hotel had to fork out for the Pinot Noir.

In my despair and astonishment at this trampling on my best endeavours, I decided to finish what was left in the bottle of Pinot. It had a distinct note of mustiness....

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The restaurant environment has its tricky aspects, and one must tread warily on occasions. I learnt to avoid making assumptions about gender after Dr O turned out to be a woman. After a while you also learn to make sure who is the host or hostess before you offer the wine list to anyone. If you really don’t know, you tend to point in the general direction.

As to real downsides to the job – there are few things I hate more than teetotallers, wine list awards, cork taint, and over-eager reps, but a lack of respect for the winemaker really gets my cool fermentation boiling. And spending most of my evenings at work, I have almost forgotten what it’s like to actually drink wine for pure enjoyment; most of the wine that crosses my palate ends up in a spittoon. I would probably be smashed after two glasses if I really had to drink the stuff! On the other hand, the part of the job that really makes everything worthwhile is the admiration and appreciation patrons have for South African wine and the winelands. The way some guests speak of our wine country, you think you must be living in heaven.

Please have some faith in your sommelier – next time one offers his assistance (especially if it is me!), it is with the hope of enhancing your dining experience. It is really not to sell you the most expensive wine on the list....