Bye, bye sommeliers? The job, once seen as an essential feature of any establishment serious about wine, now seems to be a luxury in the post-pandemic restaurant economy.
That’s the verdict of the New York Times wine writer Eric Asimov. For many restaurants, he says, the sommelier is now a luxury, nice to have but expendable in the blunt calculations of the post-pandemic restaurant model.
Many serious, wine-oriented restaurants are doing without a “dedicated wine professional responsible for selecting and procuring bottles, assembling an intriguing list, training the staff, assessing a table and telling stories that turn otherwise unknown bottles into delicious adventures.”
Esconced as I am down in tiny Tuross Heads I have no knowledge whether this trend is developing in Australia’s major cities but it would not surprise me to be told that it is. My reading of restaurant news suggests that many fine dining places are having trouble paying their bills.
And I note that the main reason for wine waiters trying to rebrand themselves as professional sommeliers was to give themselves a reason to be paid more. To justify that to a restaurant owner an ability to talk a diner into a wine with a larger profit margin undoubtedly helped.
The documentary Somm gave a glimpse of the seriousness behind which the “profession” hides itself.
Here are a couple of other stories for some background on The Court of Master Sommeliers.
The Wine World’s Most Elite Circle Has a Sexual Harrassment Problem The New York Times revealed back in 2020 how The Court of Master Sommeliers confers high honors, but many women candidates say they’ve paid a steep price with sexual harrassment and assault.
The Cheating Scandal That Has Shaken The World Of Master Wine Someliers in The New Yorker October 2018 told how a Master Sommelier had leaked “detailed information” about a blind tasting to an unknown number of examinees trying to enter the rarified ranks.
