Sure there is always the Peyrassol pour and maybe someone wants some more Antica Terra rose instead of DRC? And if guests purchase Ulysses Collin, Laval, and Prevost for exaggerated pricing- and they will! Then good job at keeping your operators happy. (I always kept wine off list to save from the vultures and sold them at reasonable prices. It’s why I always had Wasenhaus as well. But that came from experience and having been given the time to think about my beverage program and creating relationships with guests who were passionate about wine.) I don’t ever drink anything btg, but it is a good way to glean what the person in charge thinks and what the philosophy is. I like the personality that can come through, I go to Kristen at Crown shy for Portuguese wine, Tira for Northern Rhone deals, James at Popina for well priced Champagne and Burgundy and Chambers for a new perspective, and I mean Jinn for German wine at Noreetuh. If we just judge wine lists on the blue chip wines then we are part of the problem as well.
I guess it depends on how long a time frame we’re talking about here? There was a time in the not-so-distant past when having a sommelier at all was something reserved for a small number of top restaurants and would have been regarded as laughably frou-frou anywhere else. Now there are neighborhood bistros and bars that have them. Maybe that was a little much and we’re just seeing a small correction.
Nice guy – he was in LA way back when even mortals could buy DRC off a restaurant list.
Piling on! Great guy. We traveled together in Germany for a week on a somm trip. I was the only civilian.
So here’s a question - how many ‘sommeliers’ are there in the US? We know that there are approx 150+ Master Sommeliers but how many ‘other’ sommeliers are there? At each level?
There seem to be a whole bunch of folks calling themselves ‘sommeliers’ over the past 5 years but I’m not sure of credentials at this time.
Look, it’s great to have someone curating an interesting wine list and being responsible for educating the staff about it and helping to ‘push it’ - but these folks also have to be part of whether their choices are creating the revenue that is expected. And I’m not sure in many cases that’s the case.
This discussion also gets interresting as it tends to be ‘very regional’ - yep, there are tons of ‘somms’ in LA, NY, Chicago - but what about other major cities?
I know I’m rambling - sorry . …
Cheers
I always appreciate folks like the ones you listed who are doing things well, but curating a unique list is always challenging an often an uphill battle. There’s always the desire by many to have blue chip wines on their beverage program. After all, that’s some of the draw for many big-spenders at restaurants. Playing the allocation game is not easy. One can only support so many importer and distributors and the allocation game takes a toll on shaping wine lists and making many look eerily similar.
I frankly don’t think people are buying those wines at those lunatic prices. The wines aren’t worth it.
I guess my point is the section of Beaujolais or Jura or Orange wine is often bigger than the selection of wines from Napa, Bordeaux and CDP combined. It’s like you are suddenly creative because you don’t have Lynch Bages or Pegau or Chappellet on the list?
To your last point, it’s not the patrons judging, or even the Berserkers, it’s the people who hand out the awards. When they stop handing out awards to restaurants that are lacking sufficient coverage in Bordeaux, maybe that will cause a sea change.
Bottom line - are they moving the wines and making $$$ or are they trying to ‘make statements’ or ‘be cool’? Their wine list needs to turn and generate $$$ - if not, changes need to be made. Period.
Cheers
It’s impossible for me to express how controversial this idea is in the industry.
Based on the amount of wine that was sold during the pandemic from closed restaurants, and the amount of those high end wines that were sold, I would say they weren’t being sold.
Can’t tell if you are being tongue in cheek . . .
But just as wine winemaking, art, music - there’s the pure commerce side of things, there’s the pure ‘artistic’ and ‘creative’ side of things . . . If one’s goal is to simply making money, you’re on ‘one side’. If one’s goal is just ‘artistic’ regardless of whether $$$ is made, you’re on the other . . .
Cheers
In all honesty, I think the situation is no different than what food a restaurant offers. If they try to be too, Avantgard out there, they are catering to a much smaller clientele. I think everyone can understand that, and I’m not sure why folks can’t understand the same thing when it comes to a wine list.
These are the two things I think the article really lacks, personally - completely agree with you Robert.
Back to the article in question - I thought it was pretty basic. Some current and ex-somms complaining about how hard the work is and how things have changed since Covid. A bunch of anecdotes from Eric’s contacts at restaurants about how they’ve changed things in the last few years. Big lack of stories about restaurants that still have Somms and are offering wine service in ways that are interesting or innovative.
Before Covid my experience with somms was that most restaurants had someone working in that function who didn’t know that much about wine, ie. a senior server with some extra responsibilities. A few had really good wine service, run by devoted professionals (often the owner, or a partner in the restaurant), and it was always a pleasure to chat with them about the options on offer. When I discover that the manager is a real wine lover (like us!) I would pencil that restaurant in for many returns. Post-Covid I don’t feel like that much has changed. Most restaurants have basically no professional sommelier service. A few have wine lovers around and that’s nice.
For Eric’s article, I would have loved to see some facts about the restaurant industry. This had a bit too much gloss for me.
Complete sidebar: yesterday my beef purveyor connected me to a local somme (there are not many) who has some lovely German Riesling (nearly impossible to source in Yucatán) as well as Italian Blancos. Huge language barrier but she described herself as a “master” sommelier. I asked her if she was a Master of Wine and she eventually replied no, but “certified” nonetheless.
I’ll chalk this up to the language disconnect, I don’t think she was being sinister in any fashion.
FWIW, she is not affiliated with any local restaurant.
Coincidentally l listened to this podcast yesterday.
A slight tangent here. I used to think like that, but now I wonder who quit the 2nd time a paycheck bounced or they had enough being propositioned by a manager or … Instability in service industry employment is a systemic issue and not always a blame the employee.
It’s not irrelevant. When I go to a random mid level or somewhat higher end restaurant in a town that isn’t NYC more often than not I’m staring at a bunch of supermarket wines marked up 4x. It’s really annoying when I’m on the road without access to my own wine.
If you are desperate for cash, a couple of cases of DRC or somesuch was a lot easier to sell for a lot of moolah than five or ten times as many cases of the cheapest thing on the list. So I’m not sure what they liquidated really is a good measure of what was turning over, or which wines yielded a better return on the working capital sunk in inventory. (Though it’s certainly fair to ask in any particular restaurant if it makes business sense to have have a bunch of high-end bottles on the wine list.)
Be suspicious if the Italian labels say “blanco.”