Are Sommeliers specific wine experts or can they come from general front-of-house?
I think it can be both. So long you have a genuine enthusiasm for the subject, a genuine passion, it doesn’t matter whether you have come from general front-of-house background or specifically from a strong wine foundation. It is naturally important for sommeliers to have an all round skill set – to be able to interact with customers in the style of the restaurant and understand the order of service and so on. In fact I have a friend working on the wine service at a famous Michelin starred restaurant who had to trial as regular front-of-house team member before being offered the sommelier position. What do you think of the wine introduction or ‘presentation’ at the table? The wine presentation is important but again you have to judge the audience: Should you have a table of businessmen who are on a tight timescale and are not looking for any interruptions then perhaps it is less relevant. In the main people like to have an introduction of a chosen wine, it is part and parcel of the din
