08/22/09 - My life as a working Sommelier

I spent much of the day outlining courses for future trainings. Once upon a time I had all this stuff outlined, .pdfs ready. Once upon a time I'd done all this before- the basic principles don't change. Sadly, it's been a number of years since I have done any professional wine training, and I've lost a computer, an external hard drive, and many many discs in the past two years. So, the day was spent planning out (from memory and resources I still have) classes for the service industry. I still have several classes to outline- not just for servers though. I also have several management classes, a few classes for consumers, and even a class for retail specific portions of the industry!

I've been so focused on Wine Wednesday in the Pearl events, on working at the Grill, and on developing client relationships that I've really dropped the ball on further web-site development over the last week or two.

The restaurant was full for the evening, but with 15 servers on the floor, it doesn't feel too slammed if your tables aren't needy. I had a two table section, so I moseyed around the floor at a quite leisurely pace. My own tables ordered some wine from me, unquestionably "ordered" wine. Well, the Columbia Crest Merlot and the Torii Mor Pinot were orders. The Elk Cove Rose of Pinot was my recommendation from our list of *2* roses. I was also able to get over to the bar and sell a bottle of BV Tapestry.
I actually quite enjoy having a slightly slower section, having the ability to roam the floor and help out selling wine. Naturally, if the restaurant offered a position as a steward or somm, I'd seriously consider it. That doesn't quite show signs of happening, but my manager did come to me the other day to ask my thoughts about supervising the floor once in a while...