I’m in an Asian restaurant. On one side a party is drinking Gavi on another side Chilean Chardonnay. Across from me the couple is having a Chardonnay from California’s Central Coast. I’m trying a Sauvignon Blanc from Chile. There are no sommeliers to work the floor, but we all make it through the night, our palates intact.Now it wasn’t a night that I’ll remember forever, but it was one in a string of nights, dining out, where it was just fine.
So what do we need a sommelier for?
With the market shrinking for wine stewards, economic slowdown, hours being cut, positions being eliminated, I have to imagine that there are not just a few sommeliers asking that question too. What am I doing? How do I support my family? Where is this leading? What have I gotten myself into?Sure there are the Michael Jordans out there, somms who have carved out a niche for themselves. Larry O’Brien, Laura dePasquale, Greg Harrington, Doug Frost. And yes all of these fine folks have risen to the rank of the Master Sommelier, they’ve passed through hell and beyond. But for all those young lads and lassies who are crawling their way up the mountain, what are some of the biggest obstacles in their path?
I’d say that many of the ones I have been encountering lately suffer from the misperception that the world can’t live without them. Listen, the world will use every one of us in whatever way the fates decide. But to the young grasshoppers out there who really care to read to the end of this post, number 1 thing to note: The world doesn’t “need” you.Sound cruel? Get over it.
One of the cool things about the wine biz is how everyone talks to one another. Winemakers, reps, distribs, brokers, retailers, restaurateurs, export managers; it’s one extended cocktail party. Kind of like Twitter. It’s ongoing and there is no end to the conversation. And while there will be an occasional dominant thread, there will be no single person or wine who will or can dominate the room. It’s a party, remember?
The next big thing? Gruner, been there done that. Greek wine from Paros? Oh please. Biodynamic wine from Georgia? Yeah, tell that to the young couple who just came in for some spring rolls and a sashimi platter. Get real. Stop trying to discover wine and bleeding all over your customers with your new found close-out that you just “discovered”. And please, stop thinking this is just about you, don’t pout, there are many out there who are thinking this way. Which makes it comical, because here we have these guys and gals going out and thinking they have just found the next “it” wine and there about 20 of them who have just done the same exact thing.
Ok, you say I’m being hard on you? Wake up. Somms have so much more support to learn their trade these days. There are groups, there is the Court of Master Sommeliers, the Society of Wine Educators, the Institute of Master of Wine, various wholesalers and importers have their very own educational programs. Thirty years ago? Good luck getting a wine rep to bring you something from the Loire, or an Italian wine that wasn’t Bolla Soave or Fontana Candida Frascati.
I’m not saying you shouldn’t be interested in new and esoteric wines that are flooding the markets. But let’s put it in perspective. These are not bread-and-butter wines. They cannot sustain a restaurant or a sommelier, indefinitely. And unless you are a place like Catalan Food & Wine in Houston and have the intellectual curiosity of an Antonio Gianola and the traffic in the dining room to support an exemplary program like he has put together, than you need to learn to walk. First.
And one of the main messages that young sommeliers never seem to get, is that they walk tall because of the shoulders they stand upon. And they stand high because the shoulders are those of giants. A friend and a colleague, someone who has carved out their very own niche in this business as a broker (not an easy place, always between a rock and a hard spot) said it best, and I quote: “I'm reminding buyers every single day that they better support the generations of winemakers who created a product for them to even have a 'career' these days.”
To even have a career these days, listen to those words, folks. We don’t need any more wine snobs; fortunately, that generation is dying off. And we don’t need any dilettantes. The god of Wine is clear about this; we are all soldiers, we are all one infinitesimal piece of a multi-millennial movement of the grape and humankind, working our way through earth, life and evolution to finer expressions of humanity and vinosity. There is no room for pomposity.Remember, Columbus didn’t discover America. It was never missing.
So the next time you think you are the first one to have this idea, feeling or inspiration, by all means, be excited. But don’t go putting your byline below it. Or you will have legions of centurions to contend with. Open the bottle, enjoy it, share it, but don’t go thinking you are the god of Wine. Scores of Ancients, from the Greeks to the Romans will attest that is a road which goes deeper than the seven layers of Hell our dear friend Dante wrote about.