Sommelier course

The sommelier, an oenological alchemist, invests a role of great responsibility: he leads the customer towards the right choices in terms of food-wine pairing, suggests, explains and proposes the perfect combination to bring to life a total food experience. Communication skills, as well as technical and scientific skills, outline the personality of the sommelier in an exemplary way. Narrator of perfumes, he describes scents by connecting wine to food by contrast or analogy. This art takes the name of food pairing, and is one of the essential skills for the sommelier to be defined as such. In fact, he is also able to create rationally improbable combinations that can make the eyes pop, generating emotions of amazement and bewilderment. The pairing of Porto (sweet liqueur wine) and Shropshire (blue cheese made from cow's milk) bears witness to this: a sip of the first and a fragment of the other trigger an unsettling reaction in the mouth. In the mouth you have the real perception of tasting a toffee with a soft and enveloping taste. Such a gustatory synthesis resulting from the encounter between alcohol and mold was unexpected. The sommelier is a multitasking person who has transversal skills: in addition to combinations with food, he is able to carry out detailed analyzes of the organoleptic characteristics of the drink and of the blend, determining quality and defects. The sommelier personally takes care of the cellar, a beloved cold-wet temple, where his managerial and organizational skills are essential for the selection, purchase and storage of wines.