Introduction to Lesson 5 – Serving the Wine
Choosing the glassware, presenting the bottle, opening the wine, pouring the wine, changing to different wine, removing bottles and glassware, decanting wine
In this lesson, we are going to cover the essentials of serving wine to guests. We will include some of the recommendations for sommelier service in fine dining restaurants, but for the most part, we will emphasize practical tips for serving in any level of restaurant including chain restaurants, clubs, and local independent restaurants either large or small.
You will want to confirm that you know how to choose the correct glassware for different wines, open the wines, and present the wine. There are also ways of pouring wines so you don’t drip or spill on the glass or table, and there are certain suggestions for how much wine to pour in each glass so that guests don’t end up leaving wine in the glass, or get unequal shares of how much volume of wine they like to drink.
Then you have to remove the bottles and glassware or occasionally change to a different type of wine or maybe even decant an older wine that has moderated sediment in the bottom of the bottle. These are all techniques that are not necessarily straightforward and skills you will want to have even if the restaurant does not have all of the proper equipment you need. You will still want to appear knowledgeable to guests about your wine service so they don’t blame you for the restaurant’s shortcomings in wine service equipment.