I think it’s a fair comment that over the last ten years there has been quite a decline in the manner in which wine is being served, especially in the Australian café scene. Here are a few examples - I’ve sat at a ‘table service’ eatery and ordered a bottle of wine. When the ‘server’ returned with the wine it was merely plonked on the table in a wine bucket, quickly followed by the departure of said server. Sure the wine had a screw cap closure so we didn’t need to be carrying any ‘fancy’ old school equipment like, lets say, ‘a waiters friend’ in order to get the wine flowing. All we had to do was lift the bottle from the ice bucket, check it was the wine we ordered, twist off the closure and pour for ourselves. Why on gods earth should we take up the precious time of a busy waitress when most of us at the table were capable hospitality workers anyway. Those of us at the table sat there with our mouths slightly open, partly with that expression of disbelief and partly with that parched looked of seasoned hospitality workers ready to blow off a bit of steam over a long lunch. As we glanced around the table at each other, a deep feeling of shame came over us - ‘our beloved profession had just hit a new low.’
I’ve seen the same thing done in counter service café’s but usually the wine has been opened before the server leaves the table. I’ve seen a young waitress get fired on the spot while opening a bottle at a table using her nice, shiny white teeth to encourage the last bit of the cork from the bottle. But my all time favourite would have to be a ‘restaurateur’ clamping the bottle firmly between his upper thighs in order to get some extra leverage on that damned cork.
I know there are a lot of dedicated professionals out there, correctly serving and teaching the young’uns and newbies the ways of wine service but for anyone who isn’t so sure about how to serve wine here are a few tips.
TIP 1 As with all orders make sure you know exactly which wine the customer is ordering. The bigger the list, the trickier and more intimidating it can be. Especially when there are multiple vintages of one wine. Confirm the order if you need to, simply by saying, ’sorry sir, was that the 02 Hill of Grace or the 04?’ It is far better to have it correct at that stage than to have to go back empty handed with a blank look on your face and ask, ‘which wine was that again?’ Looking over the customers’ shoulder can always help, especially if you don’t know the list very well, because more often than not they’ll be pointing as they order and it also helps to see which page they are on and if there are multiple vintages of that wine listed.
TIP 2 Get the wine to the table efficiently, don’t keep your guest waiting.
TIP 3 Understand the wine and what the guest wants from it. Is it a crisp, fresh Pinot Gris or Sauvignon Blanc that is best served nice and cold and kept on ice? Or is it an aged Riesling or a full bodied Chardonnay that needs to be a bit warmer than fridge temperature so the flavours express themselves? When dealing with red wine, the question is whether decanting is needed or not. A young, light to medium bodied Pinot will generally not benefit a great deal from decanting whereas a young, full bodied red from a low yielding vineyard in the Barossa would benefit from some form of aeration because the fruit and flavours of the wine will be masked by the 14.5% alcohol vapour and there will probably be traces of carbon dioxide from fermentation. These will leave the wine once it has had a chance to aerate. An aged red, on the other hand, will need to be treated with care. Sediment forms as part of bottle ageing and decanting is a must. You will need to be careful as you are not trying to aerate this wine, so in a nice fluid movement pour the wine from the bottle into the decanter, allowing the sediment to collect in the shoulder of the bottle. Stop pouring when you can see the built up sediment about to flow out of the bottle.
TIP 4 Present the wine to whdom it was ordered, by showing the label and announcing the wine, variety and vintage to the guest. This is best done by resting the base of the bottle in your left palm and having your right hand holding the neck of the bottle. This gives the guest every chance to correct a mistake before the wine is opened. I know I’ve been thinking about one wine and then ordered another by mistake, especially the longer the lunch gets.
TIP 5 Time to unleash the wine. Pour a taste for the guest that ordered the bottle - this needs to be a good 60mls, as sometimes servers pour a minute dribble in the glass which hardly allows one to get any sense of the wine. Then present the label again to the guest while they are evaluating the wine. Once the wine has been approved it is time to pour for the other guests. In the coming weeks we will discuss what to do if a wine is rejected and what things can be wrong with the wine.
TIP 6 Pour wine for the other guest’s first. Start pouring for the guest to the left of the host and work around the table clockwise. There are a few different ways to go about this depending on the type of establishment you are working in - Ladies first, move around the table in a clockwise direction and pour for any ladies at the table first. Clockwise, just keep moving in a clockwise direction and pour for whoever is in the next seat to the left. Stand and deliver, stand in one spot and quickly pour as many glasses as you can before moving along the table. The wine glass should be set above the knife, so always pour from the right hand side and then return to whom ordered the wine and pour for them last. As I said it depends on where you are working but the most important aspect is to serve the table host last as it gives you the opportunity to offer another bottle immediately if the bottle is running low.
I know and have seen plenty of young servers who are quite shy about serving wine, and before the screw cap closure was so prominent they were terrified at the thought of having to pull a cork at the table. I see that same uncomfortable feeling come over these young servers when they are asked to lap diners or crumb down a table, but professionally and confidently carrying out these tasks is what the hospitality industry is all about. It’s a very humble and noble thing to be of service to people and as Mark suggests in Ten Tips for Better Tips, you must leave your pride at the restaurant door, along with your shyness because people are at a restaurant to be waited upon.
