Wine training: Strong foundations

Wine knowledge is obviously necessary for restaurants and wine bars but you're missing a trick if you think they're the only ones who need it. A little learning can make a huge difference to your sales, and help is at hand from the Wine & Spirit Education Trust. Adam Withrington evaluates two new training courses.

The Wine and Spirit Education Trust (WSET) is an organisation that may not initially appeal to your average licensee. When time is at an absolute premium, arranging training for you or your staff is one of the last things on your mind. This is particularly so when you realise that WSET's training has been traditionally focused on the wine trade and not the pub trade.

Created in 1969 to promote, provide and develop high quality education and training in wines and spirits, the WSET is now world renowned for the standard of its qualifications - but not by many working in the pub world. The certificates ranged from Level Two Intermediate, through Level Three Advanced up to Level Four Diploma, but some people believed the WSET was always short of a qualification that catered for basic knowledge of wines.

Foundation skills​

However, this has all changed with the introduction of the Level One Foundation Certificate. It is aimed directly at licensees and frontline staff in the on-trade - in other words it has been designed specifically for pub and bar staff. The Trust has even split the qualification into two strands, hospitality and retail, to make it even more specific and relevant. And it doesn't just cover the taste of wine and its different varieties, it also looks at the business of the grape.

Nick Page, lecturer and wine buyer for the WSET school, says that many licensees are simply missing basic wine knowledge.

"We did a presentation at the Pub and Bar Show in 2003 with Folio wines and I was absolutely gobsmacked at how little a lot of the licensees knew," he says.

"They just didn't know much about what prices they could charge and they were surprised at how much they could mark up wines by the glass. There is such a massive business opportunity with wine - just a little more knowledge can make a big difference to your margins."

The decision to introduce a one-day foundation course was triggered by the amount of feedback that the WSET was receiving from licensees, bar managers and bar chains, who were refusing to send their staff on the Level Two intermediate course simply because it lasted three days and they couldn't spare their staff that long.

"The new foundation course means licensees and their staff can get trainers to come to their own pubs to do the courses," says Nick. "We can look at the wine lists they already have and work out how to make the most of them and how to market them better."

Indeed, the course is so flexible that if a licensee is not willing to give up a whole day, it can be completed over a period of two or three days with sessions of two to three hours a day, which can, for instance, be taken between food service times.

The course has been well received so far. Several big pub groups, including Mitchells & Butlers' All Bar One chain, have shown interest in sending their managers on the course.

What you will have learned​

By the end of your course you will have learned about different grape varieties and styles, how climate affects wine, the service of wine - including the law, health and hygiene - how to make the most of your wine list and basic food and wine matching.

This last point may seem a bit unnecessary to some licensees - something that is only needed in restaurants. But, the little that is taught on food and wine matching shows you how wrong you can get it - how having a strong and acidic dish with a very light wine could put a customer off ordering wine with their meals with you for a very long time! To compete against the restaurants in your area you have to compete in kind.

The coursebook states that by the end of your day-long course you will have greater insight into:

• What wine is
• What it tastes like
• How to serve it
• How to sell it

You may look at these four statements and find them slightly patronising. But ask yourself, do you know as much about the wines you sell as the beers you serve? How many licensees can truly say that they do?

By the end of the course your knowledge and confidence will have been boosted massively by the experience - provided you can get through the hour-long multiple-choice exam at the end, that is!

If you are interested in going on one of the WSET courses, call 020 7236 3551 or email wset@wset.co.uk.

Several big pub groups, such as Mitchells & Butlers' All Bar One brand (pictured)​, have shown an interest in sending people on the WSET's wine courses