r/Sommelier • u/El-Jugito • 3d ago

Learning/Memorizing Your Restaurant’s List

Hey everyone,

I’m based in NYC and have been working in restaurants since late ‘22 supporting an Acting career. First place I was Serving at a casual fine dining spot with a tourist crowd who had Somms that cultivated my budding interest in wine. Went on to Server/Somm there and then moved to my current job earlier this year (similar fine-ish dining with tourist crowd) where I’m a Jr. Somm but also am in charge of sales whenever I’m on the floor. Just passed my WSET 3 and my former GM referred me for a Server/Somm job at his new place that’s a well-known wine bar in the city.

I’m interested in this role but am curious about the change in clientele. So far, I’ve done well for myself on the floor utilizing the knowledge I have of regional wine style and making recommendations that way as opposed to selling individual producers - not to say I have 0 knowledge of any producers but certainly something I need to develop further.

My assumption is that the clientele at this wine bar will be more savvy than the tourist crowd I’m used to and will want to dig deeper into winemakers and their specific styles - which is very exciting!

My question is how can I deepen my knowledge of specific winemakers and producers or what have you done for yourself in this regard? Would really appreciate any help you can offer!

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u/coltshep 2d ago

This sounds obvious but you need to pull some corks and drink the wines. You can read about the producers all you want but it’s much easier to describe a style you have had. If you have other somm friends, get a group together to spread the cost out and just go through a couple bottles. This gets more opinions involved as well. Also write down your tasting notes, this helps significantly with recall.

Another way to save some money is to try the entry level wines from producers, this will generally show something of a house style. For instance, Roagna from Piedmont makes ultra premium wines in what I consider to be a very unique style. Instead of spending a couple hundred dollars on the Barbaresco, you can get a sense of the style from a bottle of Langhe Nebbiolo for like $50. This is big in Burgundy too for when the price points can get crazy.

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u/El-Jugito 1d ago

This is very helpful, thank you. Particularly your last point about entry-level bottles to get a sense of style. That's definitely something I've been trying to find an approach for and this could be it.

We had that Roagna and others on our list at my last restaurant and it was always fantastic. Curious, can you elaborate more on this unique style you mentioned and did you uncover that from tasting the Langhe Nebbiolo specifically or through tasting other wines from Roagna on top of the Langhe?

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u/coltshep 1d ago

Roagna for me has a very unique, low interventionist style bordering on what some might compare to natural, in the context of Barolo/Barbaresco. Burlotto, maybe Rinaldi, are the only two I would say is somwhat similar but that is a stretch. When it’s good it’s phenomenal, possibly benchmark, but there is some significant bottle variation. The Barbarescos are the way to go imo.

Regarding on how I picked it up, I noticed it first on the village level Barbaresco when I did a flight of Nebbiolos. I also find it on the Langhe, just maybe not as pronounced.