Both the consumer and the Sommelier in a Restaurant or Wine Retail Shop both want the same outcome. They want a great wine that meets their palate at the price they can afford. Sommelier’s are not used car salespeople. We have so much passion to make people happy and to spread the gospel to our guests or customers to expand their horizons in the world of wine. Marketing and Branding is a very powerful tool and it has taken over almost every Industry including or especially wine. Your favorite wine that you go looking for or send someone to buy for you will NEVER be a wine that you have never heard of either the brand name, the country or the grape. We are conditioned in Restaurants and Retail shops that when someone asks us if they can make a recommendation to say “No thanks, I am Good”! What that sadly translates into is “I will look around at your wine list or your aisles until I find the brand of wine I buy in every store or order in every restaurant because that is my comfort zone”. I would say on average 45-50% have gotten past that train of thought and come into a Wine Store or at a Restaurant and come straight over to the Sommelier and say ” I need a Red Wine, no food, something earthy, but not too dry and soft for $10-$15″ That guest will wind up with the most unique experience because they have dropped the walls that many put up and they believe that the Sommelier is passionate about what they do. Give it a shot next time you are at a Retail Store or Restaurant. Trusting your Sommelier to assist with your selection will offer the “Wine Of A Kind Experience”
Grape-fully yours, Larry
Larry The Wine Guy 