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

What a drastically slow evening at the restaurant! I took four tables, and was out of the place by 8:30! A little Sokol Blosser Evolution hit the spot for those seeking something bright and refreshing after the afternoon heat (really?), and a half bottle of the Panther Creek Shea Vnyd to show off Oregon to a visitor from San Diego.

Joy of getting out early was that I was able to stop by Vino Paradiso and talk with Timothy about accommodating the upcoming Wine Wednesday in the Pearl! Look for an evite by the end of the week, it's coming together!

Wine Wednesday in the Pearl- Update

I've been getting a lot of questions the last week or so as to what's going on for the next WWIP. Hopefully this will give some of you an insight into what's planning, and where I'm hoping to take these events in the future.

I'm still in the process of developing relationships with Pearl Neighborhood restaurants. My goal is to turn WWIP into a truly neighborhood event, not something that is my wine crawl on my day off. I'd like to have special deals offered to WWIP attendees at various places all night long.

My portion of the event is a little more focused this time around. Last month I enjoyed just having a whole bunch of people over to open some bottles and chat, a little networking as it were. I've had multiple requests for some wine-training to be involved, so this time I'll be presenting a class.

In my year and a half in Portland, I've only seen a handful of wines opened properly. Now, generally speaking, proper service etiquette isn't observed- you don't need to go through all the steps for popping a bottle at home, nor is it necessary to observe all the steps in most of our dining establishments. However, on those occasions when something really special is being opened up (even if the server doesn't think it's all that special, it might be special for the table), it's vital to observe the rituals. Although I think that Wine Opening 101 is a primarily industry focused class, there are some very valid reasons why consumers should attend as well.

Wine Opening 101- Learn the proper steps of opening wine: Still service; Presentation; Cork Presentation; Serviette Usage; Sparkling Service. This class is vital for any person seeking to work in the service industry where proper wine service might be required. This class is also extremely helpful for the consumer who is serious about proper dining (don't you want to know that your server is doing things *right*?).

I'm all for tipping 20-25% for service, but only if it's warranted. If my server can't open my wine properly, they're not getting that extra bump.

So, to summarize:

Next Wine Wednesday in the Pearl is scheduled for Sept 23, 2009.
Special wine deals at local Pearl restaurants to be announced!
Wine Opening 101 class at Asa Skylounge 6:30pm -8:30pm

The joy of the class at Asa? We're gonna drink all the wine we open up during class. The drawback? It will have a minor cost involved.
I'll start posting more aggressively as we get closer to the event, looking forward to seeing you all there!

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...