The opening meeting of the Club’s 2017-18 season was a rare treat. Gerard Basset, the much-lauded sommelier and hotelier, presented ‘some out-of-the ordinary wines’ and discoursed on the ‘Role of the Sommelier’. And what better guide to the evolution and intricacies of the sommelier’s skills could there be?
Starting as a kitchen porter, Gerard worked his way up through waiting and serving as a chef in a Michelin-starred restaurant before becoming fascinated with the then little-regarded role of the sommelier. After working at Chewton Glen (the pioneering wine and food hotel on the South coast), he became co-founder and wine partner in the Hotel du Vin group of boutique hotels, which revolutionised the British hotel industry. He now runs the very highly regarded Terra Vina in Hampshire with his wife Nina (who was unfortunately unable to join us for the tasting). At the Hotel du Vin, at Terra Vina and as mentor and judge to succeeding generations of sommeliers he has done more than anyone to raise the status and skill levels of the profession.
The origin of the term sommelier is ancient but disputed. What is certain is the evolution of the role after World War II from the Cellarman of pre-war France into psychologist and salesman whose role is to provide expert and respectful support to the customer faced with the burgeoning wine lists of today’s restaurants. For Gerard the most important job of a sommelier is to make people want to come back. He or she must be an expert waiter, juggling the needs of several tables, the pace of the service in the kitchen and the necessity of making sure each bottle comes to the table at the right moment in the right condition.
But before that is the process of choice for the customer. Sommeliers must sell. They must know the story of every wine on the list, they must find the angle that works with each separate customer. Respect for the customer is paramount. Ask questions to understand preferences. Some guests want to play safe, others to experiment (made far easier and less risky by the introduction of wine by the glass). Others want to be ‘part of something special’ – the hundred point wine, the wine that was on the front page of the Daily Mail. And why shouldn’t they? If guests want Chateau Guiraud 1990 with their well-done steak, the task can be delicate. Can the sommelier be sure that the customer understands that Guiraud is a sweet wine? Is he or she open to other options? If not, then recommend a Roquefort-based salad to accompany the steak. Easy to say but hard to manage in practice. Never dismiss the customer’s request; never diss the requested wine. It might just be that the guest at the table is the man who made that wine (and Gerard has seen that happen).
Equally the sommelier must be a manager – a manager of colleagues, the cellar, the merchants hunting for orders and, crucially, of money. Gerard’s sommeliers have a monthly target for gross profit percentage. Wine and food margins are similar – around 66%. That means an average mark-up of around 3.5 from the purchase price of the bottle – but it does not mean to say that the margin is the same across all the list. The cheaper bottles, bought in larger quantities and sold in great volume, have higher mark-ups; the more expensive wine lower mark-ups. If the sommelier can buy cheap because the labels are faded or damaged (as with a stock of Léoville Barton Gerard once found) then the wine goes on the list at the right price for the wine with a small discount for the damaged labels).
Along the way Gerard told stories, dispelled myths such as the story that the second cheapest wine on the list has the highest mark-up, and answered questions. Yes, different sizes and shapes of glasses are valuable but it is the volume of the glass that is more important than the multifarious shapes marketed by such as Riedel. No, sniffing the cork does not have a practical value. He wine is a better guide than the cork. Wine pairings are personal but Gerard likes the formula that ‘slow food equals mature wine’.
Ultimately, none of this science. It’s common sense and the key to a successful evening is simple: ‘food you like, wine you like and people you like’.
But Gerard’s ‘common sense’ hardly conceals deep appreciation and deep knowledge as the range of ‘out-of-the-ordinary’ wines he chose for us showed.
We started with Coates and Seeley’s Brut Reserve NV Méthode Britannique, which had very kindly been donated by the makers. Very fresh, yeasty, not that aromatic but a pleasing hint of an iced lemon pastry. The variability of the British climate means that the makers have tended to market vintage-dated wines and have not yet built up the aged stocks that enable the French champagne producers both to produce complex NV wines and to sell aged wines in quantity. But Gerard was confident that this will come.
Wine number two was the Amontillado from Bodegas Tradicion (again we benefited from a discount from this highly respected Bodega, which is certainly in the top 6 of producers). Gerard is an enthusiast for the quality and value offered fortified wines – a taste now increasingly shared by sommeliers worldwide. A rich bright amber, this wine had a complex aroma of nuts and dried fruit with a beautifully integrated rancio character. The palate was delicate and the (relatively high) 19% alcohol was perfectly integrated. This was the wine that many members returned to after the tasting to sip and savour.
Number three was Gavalas’ 2015 Natural Ferment Assyritiko from Santorini. This was fascinating. Pale lemon in colour with a nose of lemon, pumice stone and delicate spice (coriander and white pepper) it was rich, even opulent in the mouth yet always with an undertow of freshness, even a slightly cidery note driven by the natural ferment process. Gerard would serve this with smoked fish to make the most of this combination of richness and attack.
Wine number four was a 2015 Grüner Veltliner from Schloss Gobelsburg in the Wachau. Grüner Veltliner was put on the map as a serious wine by a Jancis Robinson organised tasting in London in 2001 where GVs took the top seven places ahead of the world’s top Chardonnays. It’s still good value for money but this wine showed just how good these wines can be. Rich and perfumed with slightly confected aromas balanced by hints of white pepper and celeriac and a wonderful texture in the mouth.
The last of the white wines was a revelation to many of us. This was the 2013 Petite Arvine Tradition from Domaine des Muses. Fresh and powerful with an attractive edge of bitterness, this wine had a less rich nose than the two previous whites and slightly stronger spicy notes featuring cumin and fennel seed to balance the fruit.
Then we had a pair of red wines showing what Carignan is capable of. The first was the 2014 Carignan de Martino ‘Vigno’ (Wine Society) made from dry farmed old vines in the Maule Valley. The nose was too insistent and earthy for some members but the wine itself was vivid, perfumed with oak and spice and highly concentrated, giving the lie to those who know Carignan solely as a volume workhorse.
The second of the reds was Léon Barral’s 2013 Faugères ‘Jadis’ (Caves de Pyrène). This is 50% Carignan plus Grenache and Syrah. Gerard had visited this producer (as he had almost all those featured on the evening) and told stories of Barral; his elusiveness, his insistence that if a mobile phone rings during a tasting then the tasting stops on the spot, his employment of different types of goats to enhance the bio-dynamic process. But the wine makes any eccentricity worthwhile. Deep purple colour, complex rich aromas and, above all, a sense of life and vitality mark this out as something special.
The tasting concluded with D’Olivera’s 2000 Verdelho from Madeira, clearly one of Gerard’s favourite places to visit and to taste – though he did accept that there are, surprisingly, few if any worthwhile restaurants. But what does that matter when you can taste 150-year-old wines from D’Olivera or Blandys by the glass? He took us through the complex production processes that make such wines almost eternal but most of the members were focused by then on the complexity of aroma, and the balance of rich texture and fierce acidity that makes these wines so irresistible.
Gerard stayed on after the tasting to answer questions and discuss the world of wine and many members continued to linger long after the official closing of a fabulous opening tasting. Thank you, Gerard!
GH: 27/9/17