Michael Fridjhon: The rise – and potential fall – of the Cape sommelier

You would have to search long and hard to find any use of the word “sommelier” in the context of the Cape wine industry twenty-five years ago. People who sold and served wine in restaurants were wine waiters. They wielded corkscrews with greater and lesser aptitude; most tried to fill your glass to the brim to comply with the manager’s instruction to push you towards ordering a second bottle (and also because it meant they weren’t required to be attentive).

All this has changed: the industry has recognised the importance of the on-consumption trade and the key role it plays in driving sampling and sales. As long as some (but not all) producers were buying their way onto wine-lists there was no need to invest in the serving staff. Now many chain outlets and prestige establishments in Johannesburg and Cape Town make all producers pay for their listings. Curiously this levels the playing field, putting them in the same position as restaurants which make the breadth of their offering the venue’s USP. As a result, the sales role of wine service staff is very much back in focus.

Proprietors recognised this and upgraded the job title. Suddenly wine waiters were sommeliers. The industry jumped at the opportunity. It also meant that there was commercial reason for contributing towards the cost of “waiter training” – some of the costs of which could be off-set against the great South African holdall term “transformation.” In very little time distributors invested in organisations like the Sommeliers’ Association and its competitors. They helped to pay for basic wine knowledge – such as the introductory WSET and Cape Wine Academy courses. Some invited those employed in the more prestigious and influential positions to visit their cellars. Their generosity forced their competitors to step up or step away. It was hard to blame the beneficiaries for thinking that they were vital cogs, gatekeepers for whom the ill-disguised “incentives” were part of the perks of the job. Incidentally, “influencers” and wine writers (the few that are left) labour under the same impression – viz. since they are being feted by producers, they must be important.

Now we have plenty of people who call themselves sommeliers, who have a modicum of training, who are certainly more adept at wine service than the wine stewards of yore, but who are not, at least in international terms, sommeliers. The knowledge and competence required of those seeking to acquire the title Master Sommelier (MS) is at least the equal of what it takes to be a certificated Master of Wine (MW). South Africans who have advanced some distance up the MS ladder don’t remain in the country. There are better paid gigs overseas.

Instead, we have a group of people employed in wine service with an elevated sense of their own importance. Recently a couple of wine farms invited the so-called sommeliers of Cape Town to functions on their properties. A significant percentage (between 25% and 40%) did not pitch: they had accepted the invitation, they never advised that their plans had changed, they simply did not show up. Those inclined to defend them point out that their employers may have intervened at the last minute. This might indeed be the case – but then nothing better proves that they do not really enjoy the rights and status of real sommeliers. Even then, a phone call – even at the last minute – is better than an unexplained absence.

The Cape wine industry vitally needs skilled on-consumption salespeople – which is why it has invested so heavily in them. But those responsible for training them could start with a course on basic courtesy if they want their protegées to behave like the grown-ups they imagine themselves to be. And those sommeliers who do know and understand the importance of a little modesty, as well as the social niceties which form part of the food-and-culture, might consider offering collegial advice.

But perhaps those whose invitations have been treated with scant respect might also consider mentioning this to the proprietors of the smart establishments which employ sommeliers. That way they would make it easier for their invitees to explain to their managers – when they are told at the last minute that they cannot honour their commitment – that they have an obligation to go: restaurants don’t like no-show customers – they should be ready to ensure that their employees don’t impose the same discourtesy on others.

This is not simply a storm in a wine glass – something which affects only a few people in the trade and has no relevance to consumers. If the malady persists, the wine farms will finally get the message and abandon the effort. The next generation of would-be somms won’t enjoy the same access. Wine service, which has made so much progress in the past decade or two, will slip. Without properly trained wine service staff, only the brands with the biggest budgets to secure wine listings will prevail.

Our niche producers whose wines have contributed so much to the industry’s current reputation as the most exciting and innovative in the world will knock in vain at the doors of the restaurants which receive the tourists who have played a key role in communicating the message of Cape quality abroad. Without this opportunity to showcase their wines, they will be forced to shut up shop. Fifty years from now people will look back and wonder why the flame which once burnt so brightly first began to flicker, and finally died.

• Michael Fridjhon has over thirty-five years’ experience in the liquor industry. He is the founder of Winewizard.co.za and holds various positions including Visiting Professor of Wine Business at the University of Cape Town; founder and director of WineX – the largest consumer wine show in the Southern Hemisphere and chairman of The Trophy Wine Show.