Sommelier

A sommelier is a trained wine expert who typically works in a restaurant and is responsible for the wine from purchasing all the way to the moment the glass stands in front of you. The word is used broadly for someone with deep knowledge of wine, but in its original sense it is about the role in the restaurant's dining room: putting together the wine list, advising guests and serving the wine so that it suits both the dish and what you want to get out of the evening.

For you as a guest, a good sommelier means you do not need to know every single grape or region to find something you will like. The sommelier asks about your taste, your budget and the food on the table, and then suggests a wine that plays well with all of it. A classic task is to find a balance between the body of the dish and the wine's acidity, sweetness or tannins, so that the two lift each other up rather than clash. The sommelier also handles the serving itself: temperature, decanting and tasting the wine for faults before it reaches your glass.

A widespread misunderstanding is that a sommelier only recommends expensive bottles. In practice the work is mostly about hitting the right choice for you and your dish, and a skilled sommelier often takes pleasure in pointing to something unexpected and sensibly priced that you would otherwise have walked past.