Service with a sommelier by Cherry Ripe
The Australian
May 25, 2000
In the old days, sommeliers were distinguished by the golden bunches of grapes they wore as brooches on the lapels of their frockcoats. These days they're quite likely to be jacket-less.
The more casual contemporary attire notwithstanding, there are moves afoot to raise the profile of the wine waiter: to have the position of sommelier recognized as a professional calling. Later this year The Wine Magazine and Rosemount Estate wines will join forces in a competition, the Sommelier 2000 award, to recognise the country's best, with a world tour as the prize.
But how do budding young wine waiters get to learn the job? On a recent Monday evening, Sydney sommelier Franck Crouvezier conducted a three-hour sommeliers' course for a group of aspirants from restaurants as diverse as Bathers Pavilion, Darling Mills, Salt and Bayswater Brasserie.
Crouvezier, who was born and trained in France, has lived in Australia for 12 years. He worked in several Sydney restaurants, including Rockpool, before teaming up with Steve Manfredi at Restaurant Manfredi nine years ago. He moved with Manfredi to bel mondo, which was judged to have the best wine list in NSW in the 1995 Wine List of the Year competition.
A founder of the Australian Sommeliers Association, Crouvezier has a mission: to win wider recognition for sommeliers.
"A
sommelier deals with the table more than anyone else in the restaurant
- selling the wine, topping up glasses," he says. "[They are]
there to provide and sell an experience. It is important to understand
the customer, to make [them] feel at ease.
"It is also important to understand wine vocabulary. A customer who says 'I like chardonnay' is offering insufficient information. Do they like oak? Do they like a soft or a full-bodied chardonnay?
"Then you get people who say, 'I'd like a glass of moselle or claret or red burgundy.' You have to understand what those terms mean. In an Australian context, a claret is usually a blend of cabernet sauvignon. A French burgundy is made from pinot noir, but a Hunter Valley burgundy might be made from shiraz.
"People in their late 20s may like a sweet wine, but it still has got to marry with the food. You may introduce them to something a little drier and a little fruitier, but you have to make them comfortable.
"A sommelier is there to guide customers. You have got to take the order at the right moment and to know when to pour the wine. The sound of your voice is also important."
Then
there are the tricks of the trade. "A customer comes in and sits
down, and you are going to try [to] sell something to that person,"
says Crouvezier. "If it's beer, it could be a choice between Boag,
Peroni or Cascade. If you put the item you want to sell into the middle
of the list you recite, you will have a sale. People won't register the
first one. With the second one they are just starting to concentrate and
the third one they won't hear because they are still thinking of the second
one."
Another challenge is selling the second bottle. "If you target people halfway through the meal when their glasses are low - not when they have finished their main course - then they may order another bottle. And if people have a second bottle of red, then you may be able to sell them a nice plate of cheese to finish it with," he smiles.
Then there is the matter of steering the customer to the right sort of water - mineral or iced - that will enhance the wine. Crouvezier prefers to sell still rather than sparkling mineral water, as it's softer to drink throughout the meal.
"Then," he goes on, "we come to what I call the diplomacy of the table. You are managing the table. You may find one person drinks a bit faster than the others. You need to make sure his glass gets topped up regularly, but without drawing attention to it. The rule is first to top up the people who have most in their glasses, then top up the person who is drinking the most second last. You should not start with him or finish the bottle on that person.
"The philosophy is to not make that person feel as though he is drinking more than the others."
Another
rule is always to open a bottle of wine close to the table: "If you
open the wine far away and they don't see it, they could justifiably ask
for another bottle because they didn't see it opened."
Crouvezier prefers not to put wine in a ice bucket on a table for two because it will spend too much time on ice - two people are likely to drink it more slowly than a table of six.
Besides all that, there is the work behind the scenes: ordering and maintaining the stock. Along with design and fit-out, a restaurant's cellar is the most expensive investment it will make. A sommelier who can't read the market can drive a restaurant broke by injudicious purchasing.
"The sommelier is the person who holds and manages the most money in the restaurant," says Crouvezier.
"He is a trader. He has between $60 000 and $600 000 worth of stock to manage. An average fine dining restaurant would be holding around $200 000 worth of stock. That's quite an investment for the restaurant. If you are a seafood restaurant with 20 Granges on your list, or you start buying Chilean wines and they just sit there, the restaurant might have to borrow more money from the bank."
Conversely, he has seen one sommelier improve a restaurant's sales by 10 per cent.
Crouvezier is emphatic about the sommelier's role in serving alcohol responsibility, offering advice on how to handle people who have had too much to drink.
"Try to pick up such things early. Never say: 'That's it - you've had too much wine.' When you collect [their] empty Scotch glass, ask: 'Would you like a soft drink or mineral water?' Give a customer options and take care of him until he leaves. You can turn up the lights and make the room brighter, or make it cooler, or slow down the music - do things slowly so they don't notice, so they leave of their own volition. And offer to get him a cab home."
Tableside
manners are also important. Thankfully, there's none of the "Hi,
my name is Franck and I'm your wine waiter for tonight" from Crouvezier.
It would sound silly in his lilting French accent. Instead, his greeting
is direct and to the point. "Would you care for any help with the
wine list?"
"I just want to make sure they know that service is on offer. Sometimes I will remove myself for a bit. Sometimes you have people who say: 'No, we know what we want.' Then you know that they are going to order the more conservative wine and they will miss out on the more obscure and adventurous wines.
"But quite a few people will call on me - a waiter will come and say: 'Franck, that table is asking for you.' Usually it's people I have served before. That's half the job done if they ask for you by name because it means I'll be able to be a little bit more adventurous in introducing them to a wine and they will accept it with excitement.
"The adventure of trying to match wine and food is as exciting for me as it is for them if I am able to sell more interesting wines. Also, always try to tell the story of the wine to the diner. They'll come back with clients or friends and tell them the same story."
Crouvezier has no hesitation in recommending his profession: "It's a lot of fun - and challenging."