Master sommelier Véronique Rivest explains the economics of wine production and luxury markups to host Shane Parrish.
Opinion
Rivest: Anyone without restaurant service experience is not a true sommelier
“So somebody who calls themselves a sommelier and has never worked in the restaurant business in their life is not really a sommelier. A sommelier is a server. It's a wine specialized server.”
Opinion
Rivest: Mass-market commercial wines are manufactured more like soft drinks
“A lot of wines out there actually resemble more Coca-Cola, you know, a soft drink, or processed cheese in terms of how they're made.”
Insight
Rivest: Avoid sommeliers who recommend wine without asking about personal preferences
“And if anybody gives you attitude, if anybody's arrogant, if anybody tries to recommend a wine, be it in a store or in a restaurant, without asking you a single question first, steer clear away from them, right?”
Insight
Rivest: No red wine is good served above 18 degrees Celsius
“There's not a red wine that's good above 17, 18 degrees, right? And the whole notion of room temperature I don't know, that goes back to the Middle Ages, but when houses are heated at 22, 23, there's not one wine that's good at that temperature.”
Insight
Rivest: Serving rosé ice cold mutes the wine and kills texture
“So many people drink their rosés ice cold, and that just mutes the wine, yeah? The better rosés, a lot of the better rosés are much better, like at 10, 12 degrees. A fridge is at four or five, eh? So, when they warm up, they really, rosés are not usually very …”
Insight
Rivest: Spitting wine delivers the exact same sensory evaluation as swallowing
“What's important to stress is that the learning process you will get everything exactly the same out of the wine except for the effect of the alcohol. Your appreciation of it, the evaluation of the body, of the structure, of the acidity, the tannins, everythin…”