10/07/2014
Most popular misconceptions about wine experts...
1. You are a wine specialist, you must spend all day drinking wine and getting drunk right?
WRONG
Would you get into trouble if you were drinking on the job as a bank manager?
Well what makes you think we are any different? Being a wine specialist/ wine expert is a full time paid position and granted, it's a pretty sweet gig, you get to spend time discovering new products everyday, trying new alcoholic beverages from around the world but we TASTE alcohol, not DRINK it. Spittoons are provided at every wine tasting and we are expected to use them. Quite frankly there is nothing more unprofessional and downright "cringe" as seeing a drunk person at a wine event.
2. Have you tried every single wine on your wine list?
PROBABLY NOT
You'd be amazed how often we get asked this question, even in a huge supermarket with over 1000 bottles of wine on the shelf (not including beers, ciders and liqueurs). As a Wine Expert, we may not have tried EVERY single bottle, but we do our best to try an EXAMPLE of every style, and within that style we can differentiate between good, better and best examples.
3. It must be fun working behind a wine/cocktail bar; after all, you get to make all those amazing cocktails right?!
Personally..? Not really
Don't get me wrong, I LOVE my job as a Wine Expert, I love tasting new products, I love making cocktails and I love talking about wines, beers, spirits, cocktails, the lot!
But having worked behind a few wine/cocktail bars I'd first of all refer you to the answer to Question 1 above.
Bearing that in mind, you spend 8 hours on your feet making drinks (cocktails) which have to be perfect every single time. What a lot of people don't realise is making cocktails is hard work! Often you go to a bar, find one cocktail you like and drink that same drink all night. The reality is that the cocktail menu probably has between 6-12 different cocktails, each requiring different spirits, different measurements, some involve fruits which have to be sliced, diced or peeled, it must look pretty and done quickly.
No one likes waiting 20 minutes for a drink!
As the night goes on, you get more and more exhausted, and CRAVE a drink, but wait... You can't... You are at work!
So you are working with cocktails, dying for a cocktail, but can't have one. Welcome to the life of a cocktail expert.
4. You must drink really expensive stuff right?
WRONG
When I started out on my wine career, I was so eager to try expensive stuff, I'd walk into a tasting room and head for the "premium" range. There'd be a lot of "ooh ah", "ooh I say, what a splendid bouquet I'm getting". I found as I improved, I realised that terroir and tipicity far supersedes price.
For example, if I try a Chablis, I expect a pale, crisp, dry wine with medium to High acidity and that signature mineral component. Regardless of whether that wine cost £10 or £100.
Obviously, in theory, you get what you pay for. Good quality grapes make good wine and also cost more, a cost which will be translated in the retail price.
It's more about the quality of a bottle of wine and whether or not it does what it says on the label, rather than price.
5. So do you know everything about wine?
I'll answer that with a question;- As and investment banker, do you know everything about investment banking? The answer is a resounding NO. If they tell you otherwise, they are lying to you and you shouldn't be investing with them!
Even at MW level, those to whom I've been privileged enough to speak, tell me the same thing, you can know a lot about wine (and even specialise in a country, region, style etc) , but it's impossible to know everything. The wine world is so vast and ever changing that it's just physically impossible to know it all.
6. Can you really smell and taste all those aromas and flavours you say you are?
We've all been to or heard of wine tastings where flavours like gunpowder, to***co, forest floor, tar etc have been mentioned and one can't help but wonder, 'can you REALLY smell those or are you just making this up as you go along?'.
When you start out your wine journey it's hard to pick these up. In fact, as a wine student, I was asked to smell as many fruits, vegetables, spices, herbs, etc as I could. This gives you a wider descriptive vocabulary and for the record, aged Riesling from Clare Valley or Eden Valley in Australia REALLY does smell of petrol and smoke; aged Cognac REALLY smells of forest floor.
7. What is your favourite wine?
One of the questions I get asked at every event, and the answer is 'it depends'. I often joke and say 'it's like having kids, you can't really have a favourite can you?' It all depends on the mood, the weather, time of day etc. Dare I say there is even a time for Liebfraumilch!
8. How can I get into wine?
It's quite easy. Look for an entry level job at a wine bar/wine shop, supermarkets are a great place to start. Not the most flamboyant of settings, but you'd be amazed at just how much you learn from spending time around a decent selection of wines.
I'd also advise getting officially qualified with a WSET certification.
