We’re a week in to the new restaurant and the staff are dead on their feet. It’s a great problem that we’ve been a lot busier than we expected in the first few days, but it’s meant that it’s all most of the team can do to keep chugging away. Amongst a thousand and one other things, it’s meant I’ve not taken them through the wine list yet. I better get planning!
It’s a massive myth that the French know a lot about wine. They’re the same as the Italians, the Spaniards, the Brits, the Americans etc. They know about wine if they like wine and want to know about it. Otherwise they know jack shit. Oh, except the three magical words “Côtes Du Rhône”. That gets said a lot.
But I love that personally. It means I’ve got a team of blank canvases to take through the wine and spirits of the place. It’s all kinds of things, like not to open a champagne bottle like an F1 driver, or why Gordon’s green label isn’t fair game for a good gin and tonic.
I guess the biggest challenge is going to be to not sound like a condescending knobhead. An overweight nearly-middle-aged ex-banker teaching a load of good looking French 20-somethings about wine from their own country? What could go wrong?
Cheers
