Sommelier…again!
Author: Predrag Gavrilović
One of the most pronounced human characteristics is to degrade, ridicule and belittle everything that he does not understand.
After many years of observation, it was the Sommeliers' turn. Admittedly, it's not that they didn't (didn't) set themselves up, but it came with a violent energy.
In recent years, we have witnessed the hyper production of wine connoisseurs from various schools, courses, workshops, etc. One part of them realized that the basic wine education programs only literally open the door to a world that then needs to be systematically explored, while the other, larger part immediately began to enjoy the benefits of their new title, raising their reputation in the pub and overall in society. Unintelligible expressions line up, he evokes the literal talent of descriptions from elementary school on the topic of "autumn in my area", friends are speechless, but also envious of the new skill, and the reputation increases from weekend to weekend while expanding his wine knowledge more and more, but within his own circle....
Years pass, knowledge fades if there was any at all, the same phrases are used in wine descriptions and the topic is getting bigger....
To impress with wine descriptions
To recommend the best wine for the budget
To educate and spread knowledge about wines
To follow trends and social networks
Then comes the time of social networks and with it the appearance of a specific profile of new actors - influencers.
They achieve their attention, i.e. publicity and followers, and therefore their marketing potential, the fastest by making fun of everything and everything, and the ideal candidates have proved to be precisely Sommeliers, the kings of abstract terms. And when we add gastronomy, expensive micro portions of food (which they also don't understand), we get the perfect combination that when you spit on them, you get hundreds of guaranteed "Well done master, if someone told them so" comments. Superficial, like the times we live in.
To be honest, I don't blame them to a certain extent. A part of the newly formed wine connoisseurs missed the topic to a great extent, thinking that the goal of using wine knowledge and skills is to describe a wine as vividly as possible, awakening the imagination to its limits and thus building the awareness of the environment about one's own greatness and importance, and as a rule only causing volleys of ridicule. Today, science knows to a great extent the aromas that we can find in wines, as well as the way in which they are created and how they end up in wines. To fully understand these processes requires a lot of study and hard work. When we add to that years of testing different wines, visiting wine regions, great passion and dedication, we get professionals whose senses are capable of finding even the smallest details in wines on the basis of which they can draw certain conclusions. After the finals of the World Sommelier Championship a few years ago, dozens of my friends sent me a short video in which one of the finalists breathlessly described a red wine, asking how and if it was possible. It would really take a very long time if we were to describe how much time, sacrifice, money, preparation and passion is needed to reach the systematic knowledge to talk about what is in the glass, completely devoid of any predictions and prejudices. In the sea of sensational videos and stories about how they faked wines from supermarkets and caused the praise of wine experts or faked wines at competitions with all understanding, based solely on personal experience, it's really hard for me to believe it. Many years ago, I had the practice of taking wine from a tetrapack several times a year, then wine for cooking, wine from the supermarket for seven or eight euros and wine for thirty euros. You can unmistakably see huge differences in blind testing, starting from the color, through the intensity and complexity of the aromas, to the body, concentration and duration. Even if you simply leave them in the glass for an hour, when you come back the first two are usually there, sometimes the third. It's not impossible and it's not abstract, it's just a question of how much someone wants to commit, research and repeat some action until it comes close to perfection, but in any case it's much easier to make fun of and collect followers and likes because a sea of goods is waiting for advertising.....
The Sommelier's real job is to use his acquired knowledge and skills to find and recommend the best possible wine for the money that the guest wants to spend, taking into account the desired wine style, assortment and region. The greatest satisfaction is when you find a wine that no one has heard of and delight someone. When someone wants to spend a lot of money on wines or drinks well-known and established wines, he doesn't need anyone, there is a phone and applications. The goal is to search and not to boast of what was discovered a long time ago+
The goal is to search, not to boast about what was discovered a long time ago
