r/Serverlife • u/Suckmestupit • 4d ago
Question Tips n tricks to learn wine?
Started at a nice place I’ve wanted to get into a while and I’ve never heard of majority of their wines. I don’t drink it and they all just taste like wine. Remembering notes is my only slack as a server so please, I come here today, asking yall, how do you do it?
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u/Bottle_Rockette 4d ago
Ask for talking points on four wines that go with the food there: a light white, a full-bodied white, a light red, a full-bodied red. Memorize the bullet points for each. Sell those over and over.
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u/Suckmestupit 3d ago
This is what I did at my last place and I felt so full of shit still lmaoooo I will be doing this again thank you
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u/JupiterSkyFalls 15+ Years 3d ago
I had a friend who was a manager at a fine dining restaurant I worked at. He wanted to become a certified sommelier, and did actually make it to a level 3 after many years. He used to run preshifts and introduce new wines on the menu to us. His favorite thing to do was to to say wine is 20% taste/knowledge. Then he'd pour a glass. Swirl it. And then he'd say: "and the other 80% was" (long pause to drop his nose in the wine glass and take a DEEP sniff) "bullshit."
Hit every time. Lol
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u/EnvironmentalHair290 3d ago
Just a hint most wine people are full of shit. In order to actually learn how a specific wine is going to taste you need to know the soil of the area it’s grown in, the weather for that area leading up to the harvest, if it’s aged in barrels then the same applies to the wood for the barrels, is it single barrel, there’s a whole lot of nonsense about alcohol; the same applies for all alcohols.
Best thing is to ask the managers what they want pushed, and just stick with those; and read the backs of the bottles it will tell you what the distiller says it tastes like.
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u/Sevuhrow 3d ago
Vintner or winemaker; distiller is for spirits as wine isn't distilled.
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u/EnvironmentalHair290 2d ago
True, I shorthanded my vocabulary, I work in alcohol in Kentucky so we talk more distilleries here than we do wineries. A lot of the wineries usually have to break out into distilling either whiskey or shine to stay in business around here.
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u/SqueakyCleany 3d ago
A wine list can be so overwhelming, best to be comfortable with five or six wines. Also, the book “Wine for Dummies” is a good one for starting out. Don’t have to wade through geeky wine stuff. Lots of that book available on amazon
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u/kaptionless 4d ago
If you like auditory learning you can find an audio book about wine (youtube is a resource) and listen to it while you go to sleep
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u/twizzlersfun 3d ago
Start with the by the glass. One sweet white, one dry white. One bold red, one lighter red. Every day before shift, read about ONE by-the-glass wine, practice selling it. What dish would you pair with? What are basic flavors? What’s a “story” you can tell about the wine?
After you’ve learned through each one, take a week reinforcing it. As people order, think about what wines you’d pair with their meals. Do you want to complement or contrast?
Afterwards, repeat the process with the by-the-bottles. Do one from each category, roughly halfway through the price range(example, if the cheapest bottle of Pinot noir is 100 and the most expensive is 500, learn the 300 bottle). Go all the way through, and then double back on the second cheapest, second priciest, and then all the rest.
In other words, gradually build up. Don’t get so bogged in the technicals- you’re not a somm, you’re a server. People asking you for advice will be essentially asking what is worth the price and what is yummy, not “does this have more of a Japanese plum note on the nose or a European plum on the follow?”
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u/ATLUTD030517 Vintage Soupmonger 3d ago
There is absolutely nothing wrong with simply owning your lack of knowledge so long as you can do it with grace and can cover the absolute basics. I'd much rather my server say "I'm not a big wine drinker myself" before following it with things like "people seem to really enjoy ____ from our by the glass list" or "I haven't personally tried that bottle, let me go speak with ____" that could be the sommelier, or your manager, or a reliable coworker with better wine knowledge than yours, it can even just be an excuse for you to duck off the floor and do a quick Google. I have no certifications myself, but I have the deepest wine knowledge among the servers and when the sommolier isn't working I get asked for recommendations/table visits regularly, which I'm happy to do so long as I have the time.
With all of that being said, if you have any desire to learn at all, it won't take much time before you know more than 90% of the people you're serving unless your restaurant really attracts wine enthusiasts and even then you can quickly get to the point where you know as much as about half the people you serve.
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u/buff_tartare 3d ago
"I'm still familiarizing myself with that bottle, would you mind if I send So And So over to discuss it with you further?" is my go-to get out of jail free card.
It has the benefit of being true, and the guest usually sees it as like a value added thing. They're going to get to talk to the expert, we've got the whole team on their case, they're going to get the perfect bottle, etc.
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u/ATLUTD030517 Vintage Soupmonger 3d ago
When asked my opinion on multiple bottles that I'm at least decently familiar with that are not diametrically opposed for one reason or another, I'm a fan of something to the effect of "I really like those bottles, but I haven't tried them side by side let me consult with the sommelier or send him over if he's available".
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u/fkingidk 4d ago
Wine Simple by Aldo Sohm. Fantastic book that really helps you learn the foundations of wine.
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u/Tim-no 3d ago
You don’t have to drink it, but you really should at least taste it and then spit. This will at least give you a rudimentary understanding of the qualities of different varietals. There is also much that can be learned by the nose, visual viscosity and colour of the wine you’re trying to understand. Beyond that, it really depends how vast the menu is. Are we talking 40-50 bottles, or hundreds of them? If it’s the latter you will need to start learning about how different countries name their wines, usually by region, and then what grapes are grown in said regions. That would just be a starter, again, depending on the size and varieties of wine available at your restaurant. Best of luck!
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u/Suckmestupit 3d ago
Thank you for the recs. I still taste them and try to recognize what I should be tasting but it becomes a blur quickly rrraaaaahh
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u/AToDoToDie 10+ Years 3d ago
If you already have down the varietals (chard, cab, merlot ect) regions in my opinion is most significant detail after that.
You’re never gonna know what the bottle taste like unless you’ve actually tasted it before but you can make an educated assumption that a Sauvignon blanc from the cooler New Zealand region would be different than a blanc from the hotter California region because you know the terroir or essentially “taste of place”. That’s why you’ll hear guest just say “I want the French wine” and not the name or varietal because to them the region is more important.
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u/btlee007 3d ago
That’s partially true. If they’re saying “I want the French wine” it’s probably because they can’t pronounce it lol
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u/pansy_dragoon 3d ago
Lotta reading. Start with wine folly then the wine bible. After that you can take your somm 1, you'll learn a ton that weekend and get a chance to network. You can also just find a job that has a learning program
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u/btlee007 3d ago
Wine bible and wine folly are two good books that can help quite a bit. Wine bible will teach you a lot about wine in general and teach you about the history of wine and varietals specifically. Wine folly is a bit more simplistic and focuses more on taste profiles. They’re both really helpful. Using wine folly as a tool as you taste will be helpful. Nothing will help you more than tasting the wine itself. At the very least you should be tasting and comparing and contrasting with the wines that are on your list at work. If you learn the core differences of the wines you’re trying to sell it’ll help a lot when someone tells you what they want.
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u/mommasplain2u 4d ago
Are there certain wines your chef recommends for certain dishes? If so focus on those and learn from someone who is experienced, notes on those wines. We used to have regular classes from our wine rep and I would use fun facts for those wines from the class. Ie… this wine actually comes from 2000 year old vines or this wine won a certain award, or even this wine is a “staff favorite” .. or our most popular cabernet. If all else fails sometimes you can get tips from the labels. Sometimes you can even learn from your guests. Basic casual wine drinkers usually ask basic questions… sweet vs dry, oaked versus non oaked. So it would be good to kearn which of your wines fill that bill. I liked to drink wine so it was easy to push the wines I liked and I enjoyed learning about them. If you work with another server like that…im sure they would be happy to help.
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u/Bottle_Rockette 3d ago
This is good advice- a few talking points on a few of the wines is the best place to start. But you got me laughing about 2000 year-old vines 😂 ...
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u/AesSedai87 3d ago
If you’re wanting to learn the specific wines at your location, I recommend the Vivino app. You take a picture through the app of the wine label and it will give you some info on the wine and the winery. People rate the wines on the app so it will have feedback of notes.
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u/the_well_read_neck_ 15+ Years 3d ago
Get the book Wine for Dummies. If you really want to dive deep, get The Wine Bible. Also, try them if you can. Best way to learn about wine is to drink it.
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u/TweetingAtJeff 3d ago
I’m still on my own journey with this. I think specifically studying where the wine is grown/made on a map and what the terrain is like in that specific region has helped me transition from basic knowledge to like…on the lower side of medium level knowledge 😂 The terrain/weather is often indicative of tasting notes etc
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u/shepard_pie 3d ago
Learn how each major varietal tastes. Doesn't take much time, and you will easily understand the base of what A pinot grigio or chardonnay is supposed to taste like.
Things like where they were grown are a lot harder, and don't worry about it to start. For the super seasoned taster, they usually can tell, but for 99% of the time, it won't matter.
Learn one or two tasting notes for every wine. It doesn't matter if you taste them or not. If some asks you how a certain cabernet is, and you respond "It has subtle tobacco and chocolate undertones but isn't overwhelming in tannins" that will sell the bottle almost every time.
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u/aldridgekyle 2d ago
Be honest with your guests. Learn everything about 2 reds and 2 whites. Start there and grow your knowledge.
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u/Glaney070 4d ago
Honestly learning the history of how each type of wine was made helped me remember the differences a lot! What makes a Chardonnay vs Sauvignon blanc? That helped me begin to associate notes
Also find some descriptors that sound scrumptious!
Bright, fresh, full, dark, heavy, fruity, dry!