Course Agenda
Lesson 1 – Why Wine Serving Knowledge is Important
Let us refresh your ideas about why professional wine service is important for your service income and to be appreciated as knowing your way around wine.
Lesson 2 – Know Your Equipment and Resources
We talk about what wine serving equipment you will need, glasses pourers, corkscrews, decanters, versus what is available at your workplace and what support is available from managers or other staff should the need arise.
Lesson 3 – Presenting the Wine List
This is all about how to present the wine list and answer questions about it.
Lesson 4 – How to Get the Wine Serving Temperature Right
It is important to serve wine at the best temperature for guests to appreciate the aromas and flavors the wine has to offer.
Lesson 5 – Serving the Wine
The proper order of pouring the wine to guests and the best portions to pour are the key messages of this lesson and the entire course. It is important!
Lesson 6 – Specialty Wine — Older Reds, Sparkling, and Dessert
The service of still wines is our major learning objective, but there are specialty wines such as sparkling wines, older vintage red wines, and dessert wines that require different equipment, and rules for handling and presentation.
Lesson 7- Wine Aftercare
Guests and wine can sometimes result in spills and staining. This lesson dives into cleaning stains and glasses and tasks to do before sending glassware to washing.
Lesson 8 – Food and Wine Pairing
This lesson goes over the essentials of food and wine pairing so you can understand what wines will taste better and which types of wines may taste worse with different food items on your menu.
Lesson 9 – Recommending a Wine (If Asked)
Sometimes, guests may not be sure of what wines they may want with their food or what wines on your menu go best with their choices. This lesson goes into guidelines for you to recommend wines.
Lesson 10 – Handling Bad Guest Behavior Due to Alcohol
Finally, we address tips for handling guest(s) who overindulge in alcohol and who may start making a disruptive scene in the restaurant.
Final Assessment Test
You may take our final assessment test for your own benefit or to receive a certification from our Professional Wine Service School to serve as a credential for working wine service in a restaurant.
Please read and look at the material in the order of the lessons we have laid out for you. Complete the quizzes along the way and view the videos we have chosen for you. We may include optional videos and other materials which we know you will benefit from but it is left up to you.
Before getting into the course, let’s say a word about YouTube Videos. We think that most YouTube videos play best at an increased playback speed of 1.25. You can set your playing speed preference on the video’s menu bar at the bottom right by clicking on the gearwheel icon (settings) and changing the playback speed from “normal” to 1.25
A server in a restaurant has to know more than just wine service, but we are going to focus on just that. We know you are aware of establishing a pleasant initial contact with customers. The content of the following videos should be familiar to you but bear with us. We want to make sure everyone is starting out with some general principles of restaurant service.
Before you go on to the lessons, check out these two videos
Waiter Training Steps of Service 4:16
Initial customer contact 8:11