I had lunch today in a fancy London restaurant that I shall not name, and was amused to witness goings-on at the adjacent table, where two elderly gents asked the waitress to decant their bottle of burgundy.
She duly returned with a decanter, into which she upturned the bottle to vertical and began to slosh wine. Alarmed, one of the gents grabbed her arm and levelled the bottle, explaining that a little more delicacy might be in order. At this, the waitress tilted the bottle so close to horizontal, that the wine dribbled down it and onto the floor. Her coup de grace was to empty the sediment from their pricey bottle into the decanter, to the horror of the two old boys.
I don't believe for a moment that the poor standard of wine service the men received was the fault of the waitress. Rather, her employers should be ashamed of themselves for expecting guests to pay top whack for good wines, but not being prepared to invest in effective staff training. They could do far worse than to check out Caterersearch's wine channel and seek out our series of wine masterclasses penned by former Gordon Ramsay Holdings executive head sommelier, Ronan Sayburn.
Comments (1)
I find it is often the case with wine service in the United States. Being a professional in the industry I get frustrated when paying top dollar for a great wine and am served it improperly. I too lay the blame on the employer. As a consultant I often find that the employer is not well versed in the service techniques required for proper service of wine. If the employer has no clue then that will trickle down to the employee.
Michael Fietsam ~ Palm Springs, California
Posted by Michael Fietsam | October 25, 2008 3:43 PM
Posted on October 25, 2008 15:43