Flagrant délit de servir du vin......a Sommelier job!
Looking at these candid pictures of me pouring some wines at an event recently brings back some bittersweet memories of my youth when I first served a glass of a prestigious wine to a customer, 31 years ago.
I had worked in bars and bistros pouring beers and inexpensive wines before, between the age of 16-18 years old. Yet, my official first time pouring a great wine, while on trial for a night, in a gastronomic restaurant, in Bordeaux, was for a Christmas night celebration, on December 26th, 1992.
I was 19 years old. Immature and did not think that night through prior to accepting the job.
The restaurant was jammed, wholly packed, (overbooked, I should say). We were understaffed for the number of reservations, the tables and chairs were squeezed, leaving no room for doing our job properly, and the whole service, from 7pm to 2am, was a real nightmare.
Back then, in France, it was not uncommon, even in posh gastronomic restaurants like this one, to mistreat, overwork and underpay restaurant employees. I even remember crying a little, shattered due to nervosity and fatigue, saying to myself, while polishing the glasses at 3am: "I will never work in the restaurant business".
And, yet, 31 years later, despite many other crazy and unfair nights, and so many times repeating to myself that I should stop and do something else, I have surprisingly made a career out of it.
Call me crazy, but being, respectively, a bartender, a waiter, a captain, a chef de rang, a Maitre d'Hotel, a Sommelier, a Chef Sommelier, an Assistant Restaurant Manager, a Restaurant Manager, a wine store manager, then director, a Wine Quality Control Director, a Senior Manager in wine management, a private/personal Sommelier, and a wine buyer all along, during all these years, has been (and still is) an exhilarating, compelling and thrilling adventure of a lifetime that brought me to work in some of the most exciting wine hubs in the world: Bordeaux, Paris, London, New York, and Hong Kong.
I love my job! 😊👍🍷
Cheers! Santé!
Dom
@ledomduvin #ledomduvin #wine #vin #vino #wein #pouringwine #sommelier #sommelierlife #sommlife #ilovemyjob
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