A new generation of sommeliers is making wine cool again

At Drunk butlerfine dining restaurant in Farringdon, London, wine served a little differently. Usually a sommelier offers a series of expensive-looking bottles to match every dish, complete with a lengthy, often instantly forgettable, presentation. But here the wine is served blindly, the sommelier only then opens the bottle.

It’s a fun take on what can be a stuffy space at times. Yuma Hashemi, the owner, who was born in Tehran and grew up in Berlin, is unusual for a cook, often at the helm of the dining room, introduced the idea after trying it on a sommelier friend, who guessed all but one of the wines correctly. “There can be a lot of pressure for a guest who doesn’t have much wine education, maybe wants to look good on a date [when choosing wine]”- says Hashemi. “We took the pressure off by serving all the wine blind.”

Ordering wine, especially in high-end restaurants, has always been intimidating to the uninitiated. The traditional image of a scary sommelier (tall, white, in a suit, arrogant, testing his knowledge). Endless questions: What wine do you like? “Don’t say Chardonnay, don’t tell Chardonnay.” Am I twisting the glass correctly? Do you have to smell it first? How do you describe a wine without sounding silly? Can’t I get the second cheapest bottle?

“A lot of people feel like they have to conform to what you might call an ‘old school’ mentality about what it means to enjoy wine,” says Charles Carron Brown, sommelier and head of Simon Rogan’s Aulis restaurant in London. In fact, he worked for Rogan’s restaurant empire, including the three-Michelin-starred L’Enclume in Cumbria. “It certainly shouldn’t be intimidating. It’s all about making guests feel comfortable.”

A growing number of people in the industry, from producers to sommeliers, social media influencers and wine educators, are committed to making wine more accessible.

“Things are getting a lot better because of the ambition and drive of the new generation,” he says Paris Bargchi, the former general manager and wine buyer at the now-closed Peg in east London, who runs a course at the Provisions Wine School, is partly aimed at making wine less intimidating. “I came out of WSET [Wine and Spirit Education Trust] exam and there was such a mix of people. Many languages, different ways of communication, different clothes. It really gave me hope.”

Barghchi’s approach to making customers feel comfortable is to start with emotion, not knowledge. “The first thing I ask is how are you feeling? What do you want to drink? I always start the conversation first, learn a little about them.” If they don’t know what they like, Bargci asks what classic mass wine they’d go for. “It’s all about the personal interaction, not what you’re selling.”

Carron Brown takes a similar line. Instead of starting with vaguely complex tasting notes, he prefers a story – perhaps about a vineyard or an encounter with a farmer. It becomes more personal and intimate than talking about saltiness or dustiness.

Social media has played a key role in demystifying wine: young influencers such as Wine Gini, The London Wine Girl or Caron Brown’s The Natural Sommelier present it as exciting and desirable, rather than the traditional expensive claret in the cellar. . If the wine is the writer and presenter I will have what she has podcast Hannah Crosby started posting wine reviews on Instagram during lockdown, she quickly gained a large following, especially among the younger generations.

“Social media is democratizing the study of wine,” says Crosby, whose interest was sparked while working at a fine-dining restaurant at age 17. The rise in profile led to its launch Dalston Wine Club in 2020 is a hugely popular monthly event aimed at demystifying wine. For £35, visitors are treated to four glasses of quality wine tied to the theme in a non-intimidating setting. “The language I use when presenting wine is inclusive,” says Crosby. “I measure people’s knowledge so I can talk about the same wine in different ways to different people, it’s not an atmosphere where I’m lecturing you. It’s a young and diverse crowd, and as more and more people get into wine, that crowd will naturally become more diverse.”

Natural wine – a term that has no universal definition but generally includes environmentally friendly farming methods and minimal intervention in production – is perhaps the biggest wine trend of the last decade, to the delight of young eco-conscious oenophiles and the ire of restaurant critics , who turn up their noses at its funky (some say farmy) notes. Restaurants and wine bars that specialize in natural wine, such as P Franco in London or Erst in Manchester, offer high-quality wines in a relaxed atmosphere. When the Portuguese vinho verde Chin Chin, produced by the team at the famous Noble Rot wine bar – with the playful Millennial label typical of natural wines – became the talk of the 2020 and 2021 lockdowns, it seemed that practically everyone under 30 in London had a bottle. (Ironically, it turns out that this is not natural wine, despite a common misconception.)

Still, for Crosby, the world of natural wine was an easier route into the industry, although she still describes it as something of a “white boys’ club.” But the movement “was completely conducive to the attraction of many young people to wine. Traditional wine lovers looked down on it, and young people felt it was their space to ask questions and learn.” She notes that words commonly used to describe wine in the industry, such as “juicy” or “crisp,” help young people find their wine vocabulary.

Bargci, who will start her own winemaking journey in Wiltshire this year, points out that there are plenty of natural wine bars where she’s had bad experiences, and plenty of fancy restaurants where sommeliers aren’t intimidating at all. “Head sommelier of Chez Bruce [a Michelin-starred restaurant in Wandsworth] in many ways your typical sommelier, but his approach to talking about wine and sharing his passion is incredibly approachable and inspiring.”

The image of the wine industry is beginning to change. Although it’s still seen as pale, masculine and stale (a recent Diversity in Wine Survey says the industry has a “significant” lack of diversity), a new generation of writers, sommeliers, podcasters, influencers and importers is starting to challenge that stereotype.

Back at the Drunken Butler, guests are given a sheet of paper and a pen and asked to express their reaction to the wine. Someone writes detailed descriptions, someone focuses on sensations, someone draws – there are no rules. Hashemi keeps all the notes and hopes to publish them one day. And actually, not knowing what you’re drinking eliminates the fear of having to “fix.” This is just one example of how the wine world is starting to relax.