Here's a perspective from a friend and colleague on their recent travels in France from the view of an American Somm...
The Sommelier, the Somm, the wine expert, that person who knows wine. Whatever you want to call us we are everywhere. This was my first trip back to Europe since turning to a career in wine. After two weeks in France and 3 Three Michelin starred restaurants later, I have come to the conclusion, France and the US are nothing alike, at least on the wine side (other than we both have a love of fermented grape juice.) In the U,S we are trying our best to get rid of the intimidating feel of the sommelier. No longer do you have to tell someone how to pronounce soh-mel-yay (then repeat it 5 times, then when they finally say to you “So-mel-lee-er?” you just nod your head and say perfect), but we are now just Somms. No tuxedos for us, a nice suit will do. And the wine list; yes, we are all in competition for having the biggest selection, most vintages and obscure wines in a book, but the list can be held without you feeling like a child. Look at the 3 photos of me with the wine list. I have guests complain about 27 pages, imagine if I were to pass you one of those tomes.
The worst to me and my biggest no-no on the floor, is an elbow in the face. We are taught open hand service, if you cannot pour from the right side of the guest, then pour from the left with your left hand. My poor sister at one of the meals, who had the corner seat where the wall was directly to her right, kept having to duck to avoid getting knocked out. This happened in every restaurant.
All three restaurants of course had tasting menus, but no pairings offered. When we did ask to have a pairing at our final and most famous restaurant, it was charged by the glass, my memory at looking at the bill (yes, the most expensive meal to date) is seeing 2 glasses at 44 euros each, 88 additional euros for 2 courses (he paired with every two as there were 12 courses)…but there were others in the 40’s as well. We had 6 wines and a glass of champagne each.
Actually my biggest complaint was when we did the pairing. Throughout the meal, the Sommelier assigned to our table would show my husband the wine then try to walk away, he actually cupped the wine in arm to not show me. I am trying to this day to not take it personally, but it happened every time…I have never seen a presentation like that before, especially since I hold the bottle like Vanna White displaying a tile on Wheel of Fortune. This is the modern era, women are winemakers andconnoisseurs now. But this isn’t a rambling on feminist rights, itwas just flat out annoying and disrespectful. And yes, my loving husband did send the sommelier to me saying I was the one who knew wine, but it made no difference.
But my most special moment; they drip wine too! It happens, and I curse under my breath every time it does, but wine was dripped on the table at Three Michelin starred restaurants, and they didn’t seem to care. I still may quietly curse when it happens to me, but I feel better knowing that the “best of the best” do it too.
Though I would never give back the chance to eat in those delicious precise restaurants, and I would go back to all of them in a second, especially on someone else’s dime, it is one of the few times I am happy to say I work in the USA in this industry. We have surprisingly high expectations for ourselves and do what we can for a most proper but not pretentious service.
Sincerely,
Pandora the Explora'
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