Glass half empty...

by Chris Losh

On the whole, I enjoy dealing with sommeliers. Handy, given that you’re the magazine’s readership and, therefore, very much part of my life. I generally find you to be open, friendly, genuine and clearly passionate about what you’re doing.

But there’s one thing I just don’t get.

Whenever we put together a tasting, and ask for your thoughts on the wines, one word comes up every single time. And I mean EVERY single time: ‘disappointed’.

If all we ever tasted was sub-£5 supermarket wine, or the Grand Crus of Yemen I could understand it. But I’ve been there when you guys have been tasting some seriously good kit, from prestige cuvée champagne to claret and the New World’s best Pinots.

Every time the dialogue runs like this:

Journalist: so tell me Mister Sommelier, how did you find that range of £100+ wines?

Sommelier: Well to tell you the truth they were a little disappointing.

The reasons then trotted out can vary from ‘they were a bit too young’ to ‘some were a little flabby’ or ‘they were a little homogenous’ to ‘there was no consistency of style, no regional identity’.

It actually doesn’t matter, because under further questioning, I usually discover that, far from being distraught at the quality of the wines, you have usually found a good deal to like. Sure, you will have reservations, but often you will like over half the wines on offer. It’s just that most of the time you can’t bring yourselves to admit it.

So the obvious question, guys, is this: what is it about the profession that makes you think you ALWAYS need to focus on the negative?

Do you expect every single wine in a flight to be interesting, typical, taut, well-balanced, food-friendly and great value for money? Surely not. You couldn’t be that idealistic and get through the day.

Do you expect every wine – at whatever price – to taste like Premier Cru Bordeaux or top Montrachet? Again, surely not. You guys know damn well that putting together a wine list is a job for hard-headed pragmatists as much as poets, and that 80% of your business is under the £40 mark.

Do you, then, worry that if you sounded positive you would give the impression that you are not a good taster because you are unable to spot bad wine? Surely not. After all, there’s a difference between being fairly critical and being unremittingly negative.

No, my feeling is that this persistent negativity is almost a badge of belonging; a world-weariness worn with pride. Proof that you have tasted sublime wines and cannot forget their beauty. That you in some way deserve better than this flight of South African Sauvignon Blancs because you are an artiste, not an artisan.

It is, in other words, total bollocks.

And just how much it’s total bollocks was brought home to me earlier this month when we ran a tasting (out next issue of imbibe) where we asked 50 sommeliers for their best wine pick under £15, lined ‘em all up and tasted them.

There was, as you can imagine, all sorts of stuff there. A few growlers, a few stunners, and a lot of pretty decent wine.

What did the tasters think? Why, they were disappointed, of course...

So let’s get this straight. These were the top recommendations from top sommeliers (even, in some cases, by some of the tasters, for Chrissake) and STILL the wines weren’t good enough to attract positive feedback.

The mind, frankly, boggles.

From a journalistic point of view, I find this negativity faintly amusing – not much more than a ridiculous sommelier nervous tic that can be, for the most part, ignored.

But I think it’s worth all our readers asking themselves whether any of that air of superior negativity pervades other areas of their job. Even, God forbid, the interaction with the customers.

There are plenty of members of the public out there who still have a dislike and mistrust of sommeliers, viewing them with a mixture of fear and contempt.

Treat them with even the slightest whiff of disapproval that is reserved unjustly for so many wines, and they’ll be more than disappointed. They’ll be furious. And they won’t come back.

2 comments

Garry C. 01-04-2010

I find myself seriously hoping that I have never uttered those words. I doubt that I would have, because I dont get out to many tastings and so appreciate them all the more when I do.
But I agree that this is how many of my peers and colleagues are viewed by those within and without the industry.
My personal pet hate is that when you ask a sommelier what their favourite grape variety is they will inevitably try and come up with the most obscure grape they can think of, as if it makes them that much more elitist. Gruner Veltliner is a prime example. And in case anyone is wondering, my favourite would be Pinot Noir.

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Mark D. 17-04-2010

are you saying that price or cru should dictate whether a wine is or is not disappointing?
I remember that Prestige Cuvee champagne tasting we did. What was it, 6 out 14 champagnes were faulty or something like that. That qualifies as disappointing in my books regardless that there was a couple of truly great wines within that flight. I tend not to talk in terms of disappointing tastings on the whole unless they are so obvious (like said Champagne tasting) But i will (as i think you know) will call a spade a spade on individual wines. I guess the equation would be simple. More good wines than bad wine over expectation will equal good tasting. Less good wines than bad wines over expectation equals disappointing.

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