What is a Sommelier? And what do you do with one?!

What actually is a sommelier?

You hear this word around a bit and wonder what it really means. Is it a sort of waiter? Or a wine person? And how do you even pronounce it?

A sommelier (pronounced som-elly-yeah - see easy!), or somm for short, is both of those things and more: she (or he, but for space purposes, I’m going to use she) is a trained wine professional, usually working in a fine dining restaurant, who specialises in all aspects of wine service as well as wine and food pairing. She will have a gift for matching grape variety and wine style to dishes on the menu and has a second sense in divining what her guests would like to drink at any given point of the meal. She can be your best restaurant friend too, and she won’t make you buy the most expensive bottle on the list… unless you really want to!

So to the scenario...

You're in a nice restaurant, you’re with the boss entertaining a table of important clients. You’re slightly nervous and keen to impress. The first round of drinks has been downed, and the menu has been discussed with the waiter. You can relax! But then the sommelier arrives and the boss immediately hands you the wine list and says, “You choose!” Eeek! Now, what do you do?! Run screaming from the room? No, you do not. You do not need to panic!

Make is a fail-safe sommelier experience

All you need to do is find out a few things from your group:

1. Firstly, find out whether everyone in your group is happy to drink bubbles or white wine, rosé or red — or not.

2. See if your group has organised a shared menu - with everyone eating the same thing where potentially you might have one wine to match - or chosen to order à la carte, with everyone potentially eating something different.

3. Have a rough idea of the budget (in this instance a covert text to the boss might be in order!)

4. And plan to order the wines for both entree and main courses at the same time. This gives your sommelier time to bring and prepare the main course wine and glasses in advance.

The answers to these questions can be relayed to the sommelier, and she will work out and discuss a number of suggestions with you - one could be to offer a choice of two contrasting wines with each course if your group has wide preferences. And there’s no need to get embarrassed about discussing a budget - it’s much easier for her to suggest wines if she knows your price range!

Next: she will present the chosen wines to you and offer a sip. This is for you to check if the wine is ‘sound’ - this means that the wine tastes like it should and there are no nasty surprises, like cork-taint affected (corked) or oxidised. Nowadays most bottles are closed with a screw cap so these faults will not be an issue, but your sommelier might still offer a traditional taste for show. During the meal the somm will keep your glasses topped up and ask you if you need another bottle when the wine runs out, and then just before the main course is served the sommelier will offer the next wine (often red if you haven’t opened one yet) and change the glassware.

That’s the tricky bit done. Now you can sit back, relax and let the somm do her job!

About the Author

Melissa is a perpetual student of wine (currently WSET Diploma) and competition-winning sommelier. She has a sharp palate for both wine (duh) and sandwiches, enhanced only when blaring loud dance music.