Wine speak

People who serve wine often have difficulty finding words to help customers make informed choices. They have to overcome the general culture of its mystique, real or imagined.

"For staff and customers there is an underlying fear of the subject," says Tony Good, who has just completed a year's secondment teaching waiting staff at the Butlers Wharf Chefs School in London.

"Student waiters and waitresses need help in building confidence. Pronunciation is part of the problem - think of Saint-Véran or Moulin-à-Vent. It's no easier if customers are also uncertain about pronunciation. It's a question of slowly building up levels of understanding," says Good.

There are still problems when it comes to experienced waiters and established levels of understanding. "You have to work at descriptions such as weight, colour and smell until the waiter or waitress can use the words with conviction. We want it to become their own language rather than something they recite."

Learning the lingo

The technical language of a wine specialist often appears fanciful. We may have come down to earth since 1967, when the writer and former wine merchant Gerald Asher described a Nuits-Saint-Georges as possessing: "Deep colour and big shaggy nose, rather a jumbly, untidy sort of wine, with fruitiness shooting off one way, firmness another and body pushing about underneath."

Such lingo may work, but it requires a confidence few people possess. "Our normal tasting notes are of no use in the restaurant," says Good.

The less exuberant language used in merchants' lists - a snippet about a grape variety or a region - can sometimes help and is often used in restaurant lists, but it tends to be appreciated by other professionals rather than the public.

When a wine note reads "balanced", what factors are balanced? The specialist will say tannin, fruit, acidity. But the customer really wants to ask: "Will I like it?"

Knowledge of how customers behave in restaurants, and how much they already know about grape varieties and regional styles, will help. Most restaurateurs and sommeliers develop the technique of gently quizzing customers for their preferences. When advice is requested they ask: "Do you prefer white or red, light or rich, dry or sweet?"

Tony Hadley, of the Cross, in Kingussie, Scotland, says: "In recommending wines to customers, it is necessary to get inside their palates." He is one of the restaurant industry's most passionate wine buffs, and has built his restaurant's fame on its 400-bin wine list. He asks: "What type of wine do you normally drink?" Or: "In an ideal world, money no object, what would you choose?"

Having gleaned as much information as possible, he tries to suggest "something unusual, sometimes controversial, but always to complement the food chosen. It gives me pleasure to introduce people to new experiences. To offer a Frenchman top-quality Sauvignon Blanc from New Zealand would be a good example."

Kate Smith, who runs the Beetle & Wedge in Moulsford, Oxfordshire, with her husband Richard, relies on staff who care as much about wine as she does. She has earned wide respect both for her wine list and the way she trains staff. "Some people can talk about wine because they understand it," she says. "Others may know it in theory but the technical terms are not enough."

She says her two restaurant managers Véronique Come and Andrea Vincent are knowledgeable staff who sell wine successfully because they love it. "We believe in allowing customers to taste the wine," Smith says. "We sell most wine by the glass, allowing them to pay only for what they drink.

"The system relies above all on staff who know what the wine tastes like and can discuss it with customers," she adds.

Technical language only makes sense if it comes from people who have built up that kind of rapport with customers. References to fruit other than grapes - gooseberries, blackcurrants, plums, raspberries - can convey some qualities of wine, but is rather a crude technique and may confuse customers. Now that wine labels have done so much to explain the grape varieties, sometimes naming the variety itself is better than listing a basketful of fruit.

The way a wine list is arranged is another helpful way of assisting customers to choose a wine. Some restaurants have even listed wines according to grape variety. A Pinot Noir heading, might, for example, include a wine from California, South Australia and Côtes d'Or.

But it is more common, if you are not going to employ the traditional demarcation of country and region, to adopt style headings such as: light red; rich, full-bodied red; dry, white; fruity white; aromatic white.

Problems at the top

Gastronomic restaurants, where customers expect some of the best wines as well as the best food in the country, still experience difficulties. Some customers may know the relative value of a '61 Léoville-Barton compared with an '89 Lascombes, but others consult a pocket wine guide under the table, or rely on the help of a friendly sommelier.

Many appreciate some discussion. Paul Henderson of Gidleigh Park in Devon, another of the industry's most notable wine enthusiasts, lists the contents of his formidable cellar in conventional order by region. "We don't describe all our wines," he says, "because if we did, it would expand our list from 32 to 75 pages."

Between 10% and 15% of Gidleigh Park's customers ask for advice. "We make a feature of a few wines," Henderson says, "and provide detailed tasting notes. We use words such as lemony, rich, fat or young. I try to steer people towards less familiar wines, such as Viognier or Syrah, which do need describing. I'm a great fan of dry Riesling, which goes so well with food. Anything but Chardonnay or Cabernet."

The success of people such as Paul Henderson is that they stock and sell wines they like, and it shows. Interest is infectious. As Kate Smith says: "the simplest sign of it is when staff ask customers: ‘How is the wine?' The customers are flattered and staff learn something from the response."