The employment of sommeliers - or waiters with wine knowledge, depending on your property - can be a difficult nut to crack. Over the years at Northcote Manor we've seen a succession of great French staff who used us purely as a gateway into the UK: a finishing school for getting their English up to speed and a springboard into London and other quality properties.
I've no objection to this practice (you have to have ambition) but it fast became a frustrating situation for the business. We were constantly changing staff and spending a great deal of money on agency fees and education for no real long-term benefit.
Eventually, we decided that the best policy was to invest in our own people and build a structured programme of education around them, helping them to develop a wine knowledge through their own dedication and determination to succeed. We designed a three-year course that encompassed all aspects of wine education and brought the employee up to a level of knowledge that benefited both us and him/her.
Our current sommelier, Russell Bennett, was a junior member of the waiting team until we took this approach. In the first year of our programme we financed him through the basic and intermediate Wine & Spirit Education Trust (WSET) course in London and got him to sit the basic wine sommelier exam: the only stipulation for Russell was that he should stay at Northcote for one year after the completion of the exams.
I'd recommend this type of structure as good practice for all small properties. The risks are less than if you were educating someone you had brought in from abroad because there is a commitment from both parties to succeed. Your business enjoys a year's benefit from the employee's education and the member of staff benefits from expanding his/her knowledge - and at the same time improves his/her prospects of promotion in the future, either with you or at another establishment.
Russell is now in his second year of wine education (and building up to a diploma of wine) and is due to sit an advanced sommelier exam in the summer. His three-year wine education will be completed by next year; and if all goes well he will have the opportunity of going on to do a Master of Wine course and exam.
As a company, we now have a self-educated, young and enthusiastic member of staff who has given loyalty, time and commitment to Northcote while furthering his own career. Our investment has more than started to pay off: last autumn Russell was runner-up in the French Wine Match Competition, he won the Rémy Martin Taste Match, competed in the final of the Miguel Torres competition and we're hoping he will win through to the Ruinart Wine Sommelier of the Year this spring.
We have not only supported Russell's wine education, though. As an ongoing policy we put together a string of events to assist the rest of our staff in overall wine training and education throughout the year. We also stage customer-related wine events.
These are not the easiest things to organise, but when they are done well they help not only staff (who learn alongside the guests) but customer relations and long-term sales as well.
The ways it works is this: we get, for example, generic wine bodies (representing individual regions or houses) to provide a quality speaker, an aperitif and dessert wine. We purchase the balance of the wines, then sell the night as a commercial enterprise. The next day we give over the restaurant to the wine associate for a set lunch at a set price and allow them to invite on- and off-trade guests for an educational lunch. Everyone wins.
Wine Education
Wine & Spirit Education Trust
020 7089 3800
Academy of Food and Wine Service
020 8943 1011