Sommelier In Training Wine Class

Giancarlo’s is always growing and striving to improve. Being that we have three Sommeliers in training on our staff, and Grivani Wine Cellar, our wine program is very important to us. Because of that, we want our staff to know their wine! Every Wednesday, Fred, Katie, and Joe host a Sommelier in Training Wine Tasting Class. This 8-week intensive wine class is for Giancarlo’s employees to improve their knowledge of wine. Each session the select employees have a specific topic on readings to discuss and tastings of wine. They also take weekly tests, and at the end there is one final test. If passed, these employees are Grivani certified. Being Grivani certified means Giancarlo’s will support these Sommeliers in training to have the opportunity to travel and participate in conferences, and work towards being certified Sommeliers. Over the course of the past eight weeks our wine class has learned about the different wine regions in Italy- which most of our wine list primarily comes from, different wine regions in France- which is important to set the tone for understanding wine from around the world, and America- including northern and central California and Oregon. These wine regions mean the most to us, so it is imperative for servers to be insightful on these.

The importance of this class is to set the foundation for knowledge of wine, production from vineyard to bottle, understanding the different regions which our wine comes from, and creating the full wine dining experience. Customers who know wine want to trust their servers, and in our wine program we have staff who are young, knowledgeable, confident, and take the time to understand how to pair wine with our dishes.

It was very interesting to sit in on this class. First of all, Fred actually looked like a professor with his big book about wine. He was so knowledgeable on the the week’s topic, he barely even looked at his notes he wrote down. The way he tasted the wine looked like a professional also. The class compared the taste, color, producer, region found in, and what the wine was best known for. There was a lot of discussion between the Giancarlo’s employees, it was not simply listening for an hour. After just one class observing, I could tell this was very beneficial for our employees and they were really taking what was learned into their serving technique.