Fun article in today’s Wall Street Journal from Lettie Teague: Sommelier Tasting: Expert Service or Sneaky Sip.
She reports that about 1 in 100 object to the Somm tasting their wine, on the theory that they are perfectly capable of doing so, and the Somm is merely taking some of the La Tache or whatever.
She also reports a serious oenophile acquaintance who, in many, many experiences, has never had a Somm reject a bottle.
I don’t roll like many of the ballers here, but my experience is just the opposite. I’ve had 2 different Somm’s reject 3 bottles. I appreciated the quality control, and didn’t begrudge the few ounces it takes to do so.
She also cites Somm’s saying that their tasting is an integral part of their education, that enables them to be better at what they do.
As a counterpoint, she reports shadowing some top Somm’s for a period of time for an article and was surprised by the generous pours they gave her out of the sight of the patrons.
If you believe a somm knows more than you do, then let him or her take a sip and tell you about the wine. I don’t and won’t.
If you believe a somm needs to keep up to date on the evolution of various wines, then you pay for his education with a sip of your wine.
It’s a little weird - if he’s had a wine in the cellar for 10 years and has no idea how it is, I’m not sure what good his recommendation is anyway. If it’s a new wine that he’s selected and he knows all about, there’s no real need for him to take a sip. Frankly, I find it offensive if I’m ordering a wine from a restaurant and they decide they need to taste it. That’s like the waitress showing up with a spoon to taste your soup.
It’s why I bring my own. OTOH, in those cases, I’m always willing to share it with the somm and the servers.
The one and only reason any truly reputable sommelier will give for tasting the wine is to make sure it is sound. I didn’t read the article and don’t know or care who is quoted as saying otherwise. The fact that probably high-profile sommeliers were giving her surprisingly large pours behind the scenes is ridiculous. The whole education and keeping up to date thing seems somewhat offensive for the reason Greg states. For the purpose of making sure the wine is sound, though, I’m happy to have a sommelier taste my bottle upon opening. If they’re really good at their job, they will know the specific wine off their list far better than I do in most cases, and might thus be able to detect very subtle problems like an almost unnoticeably low level TCA which would only mute the fruit.
I think you need to distinguish between true professional somms and everyone else. Since I’m usually drinking in restaurants in NYC with serious somms, I always ask them to taste the wines.To me , its part of the job ( and one of the perks of the job ).When I dine where the somm is a novice or seems inexperienced ,I’ll taste the wine- but I still usually offer them taste anyway. If you feel strongly that you want to taste the wine, of course ,do it yourself. At a minimum I would offer them a taste from the bottom of the bottle. It’s not likely you’ll really drink the dregs, and it will educate them.Just my 2 cents
So here’s a ‘what if’ - you bring in your own bottle and you find it sound but a Somm tries it and tells you that it has a very low level, but quite detectable, level of a fault such as TCA. Does this affect your enjoyment of the wine?
I’m not an ‘anti-somm’ in any way, but I can very well imagine that there are plenty of ‘somms’ out there who ‘abuse’ their role and do sample generously.
I appreciate and respect good somms who will guide me in selecting wines from their list based on what I’m looking for or, in some cases, based on what they are finding ‘interesting’. There’s a bit of an ‘insurance policy’ with a good one - they should ‘stand behind’ the chosen wine and if it is deemed unacceptable, they might have to be in a position to take it back.
I think there remains so much ‘gray area’ at this point, and with the explosion of those now trying to become somms, I’m certain that there will continue to be a handful that will excel and many that will not moving forward . . .