Use your sommelier!

4:07pm Tuesday 15th July 2008

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I am writing my column this week in the stunning city of Santiago do Compostela after a week-long tour of the vineyards and wineries of Galicia. It has been a fantastic few days, not just for the wines, the scenery and the food, but for the company I found myself in.

What can I tell you? I have been completely charmed by the utterly delightful and awe-inspiringly knowledgeable Matthieu Longuere, head sommelier at La Trompette in London's Chiswick.

We all get terribly excited about celebrity chefs and the magic they work in the kitchen but somehow the sommelier seems to have been swept aside without so much as a second thought.

The more I talked to Matthieu the more impressed I was. He has an encyclopaedic knowledge of wine, able to recall his thoughts and tasting impressions on the thousands of wines he must taste every year. He could tell me where he tasted them, which company imports them and nearly always something about the people that made them.

He is an astute businessman, too. He needs to ensure his list that runs to some 700 wines is profitable while managing which wines he should be selling now and which will benefit from further cellaring.

Most impressively of all, he is the ultimate diplomat. Dealing with customers cannot always be easy but I imagine Matthieu is Mr Unflappable. I was curious to know just how many people make use of his skills and knowledge. He tells me that about 40 per cent of his customers ask him for advice.

There's quite a craft in identifying how much people want to spend and it is his tendency to err on the side of caution.

Having spent as much time as I have this week, I know that this is someone who is open to the potential of any wine, regardless of its price, origin or style.

It is particularly good news for those of us that don't want to spend extravagant amounts on a bottle of wine in a restaurant because it means that there is more likely to be a selection of lovely wines from lesser known regions, offering better value than some of the bigger names such as Chablis and Sancerre.

Matthieu did admit to being frustrated by the number of customers who just don't listen to what he has to say. He cited examples of customers selecting wines with very individual styles that he knows might not be to everyone's taste.

"I tell them, this is a wine that has certain qualities, that it wasn't a typical vintage. I give them lots of clues, in a subtle way. Then when I serve the wine they tell me that the wine is corked. It's frustrating because I know the wine is good and I try to tell them that this is what I was explaining to them."

In the end, he will offer the customer another wine from the list.

I have to confess to being frequently irritated by what I see as greedy pricing on many restaurant wine lists. Excessive margins on a list that lacks knowledge and creativity is deeply depressing.

But perhaps it's even worse that 60 per cent of the people dining at La Trompette aren't making use of the expertise of a man like Matthieu. In a well-managed restaurant, the expertise of the sommelier is part of what you are paying for in the price of the wine. It's crazy not to take advantage.

I have sat next to this man throughout an eight-course dinner. He loves his food and his wine. I cannot think of a better person to help me get the best out of my meal by helping me pick the wine to drink with it.

I think the time has come for the celebrity chef to share more than a slither of the limelight with their sommelier. They are a highly-skilled bunch whose skills need to be better acknowledged.

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