Everything You Need to Know About Sommeliers
by Ed Young
Frugal MacDoogal's Monthly Guest Wine Letter July, 2006
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If you have ever ordered a bottle of wine in an upscale restaurant, you have probably encountered a sommelier. The French word “sommelier” (som-el-yay) means a wine steward in a restaurant, although the person can be much more than that. We thought our readers would be interested in a “behind the scenes” look at this profession. This interview is with Steve Boyer, Beverage Director at Watermark, a popular restaurant that opened in November 2005 in the rapidly developing “Gulch” area of 12th Street South.
EY: What’s the difference between a Beverage Director and a sommelier?
SB: Although I am a sommelier , people think of that as someone who only gives diners wine advice and brings the bottle to their table. In addition to wines, I also purchase all the beverages and spirits for the restaurant, maintain the cellars and stocks, make up the wine list, and train all the servers. We have about 2,500 bottles in our cellars and storage areas; there are 300 selections on the wine list; and 16 servers attend to customers.
EY: How did you get into this business?
SB: I started as a waiter at Midtown here in Nashville and became fascinated with wines. It became a passion. I learned everything I could, tasted everything I could, read all the books, and took and passed a course taught by a master sommelier. I was also the Beverage Director for Tayst in Nashville.
EY: Did you have to go to a school to become certified?
SB: One becomes a sommelier by passing exams given by certification organizations. It is like karate-there are degrees of expertise and competency. I have attained the first of the three-level certification process set out by the Court of Master Sommeliers in Great Britain. There is also an American organization. But the answer to your question is that you don’t have to go to school. Some do get their formal training that way, but the essential qualification is experience. You learn a lot from serving customers. On the job training and self-education are absolutely important. You have to have experience or you can’t succeed in this business.
EY: How can one person be the sommelier for everyone in a restaurant like this?
SB: Well, I don’t have to. As I said, we have 16 servers and we train them in the basics. Some customers know what they want when they come in the door. Sometimes the diner can’t choose between two wines and the server will ask for my recommendation. If there is a problem or special situation, the server may feel that my direct involvement is necessary. Of course, some customers do ask for the sommelier, and I’m happy to respond to them personally.
EY: How do you give wine advice when a table for four orders four different entrees?
SB: That happens quite often. We might match up three of the entrees with a versatile red like Pinot Noir, and recommend a glass of something for the fourth person. Or we might have to go with glasses of four different wines. It depends.
EY: What happens when the diner orders something you wouldn’t have recommended?
SB: This gets into basic philosophy, and ours is to please the customer. We don’t tell people what not to drink. Our wine list even has a white zinfandel! We aren’t wine snobs and we never want to be disagreeable or cause any embarrassment to our customers. You have to be a psychologist. The host at a business dinner may order an expensive wine to impress his guests. A young person on a date may be ordering something just because it’s affordable. At Watermark, food comes first and wine second. Our goal is to give customers a great dining experience and have them go out the door with smiles on their faces.
EY: How often does your wine list change?
SB: Ours is changed weekly. The menu changes daily, and we want to offer wine selections that match the entrees we will be serving during the next week. Also, we like to feature “boutique” wines produced in limited quantities by small wineries. That means wines are constantly selling out and need to be replaced by other choices.
EY: Your whole career has been spent in Nashville. Have you noticed any changes in wine preferences here?
SB: Oh most definitely. Nashville wine drinkers are much more sophisticated now. They are much more open to new wines. Lots of people want to try something different.
EY: What is your favorite wine?
SB: (After some pause). That depends on the season of the year, the time of day, and what I’m in the mood for. A better question would be what style of wine is my favorite. I tend to prefer the leaner “Old World” wines. But, having said that, I can fully appreciate “New World” wines that are artfully made.
EY: This is a sensitive question, but what is your “take back” policy?
SB: We always replace a wine that is corked, or that has suffered from mishandling in shipping or storage. If a customer asks for a recommendation and then doesn’t like it, we will replace that wine with another. But if a customer orders a wine on their own and drinks half a bottle and then wants to send it back, we will charge for half a bottle.
EY: Is Watermark doing anything different with wines compared with other restaurants?
SB: Well, we don’t have house wines. There are just too many wonderful wines out there to select one red and one white. We offer 34 wines by the glass ranging in price from $6 to $29. Incidentally, that $29 one is for a Pommard 2003 Premier Cru. You won’t see that offered by the glass in many places at any price. We use an expensive Cruvinet system that prevents oxidation from changing the taste of a wine. The finest varietals can be kept as fresh as the moment they were uncorked for up to six weeks, which provides exciting opportunities to sample some of the world’s best vintages without spending hundreds of dollars on a whole bottle. Another thing is that we serve whites at 50-55 degrees, which maximizes taste. If a customer prefers that wine in an ice bucket, however, we will do that. Of course, Champagnes are still served cold.
EY: What advice would you give to wine drinkers coming to the Watermark?
SB: Actually I have two. The first is not to be afraid to ask for suggestions. It isn’t always easy to tell what wine best matches up with your entree. The second is to give the wine server some hint as to your price range. We won’t ever ask that question directly, but if you have a top limit in mind, point to a similarly priced listing and ask the server what he has in that price range. We do not want to sell anyone a $100 wine that is beyond their means. Just a hint will help a lot.
EY: How does a sommelier know when he (or she) has been successful?
SB: The biggest challenge is finding a wine that will please a particular person’s palate. You know you have done well when that person says at the end of the evening: “That was a fantastic wine! Where can I buy more of it?”
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