The Wonderful and Frightening World of Olly Smith Attack of the sommeliers

Published: (01-03-2008)
Author: Wine & Spirit News Desk

Return of the Jedi has a great moment when the rebel fleet is swarmed over by a mighty throng of small Imperial TIE Fighters. It's a bit like watching an army of enraged prawns converging on the face of a scuba diver. I've never been attacked by a sommelier, but I have mates who begin to panic whenever a sommelier approaches. Far from feeling like they're multiplying into a cloned army of bullying wine pushers, I love chatting to sommeliers and finding out what they love about their list. Why have they put it together this way? How much time do they spend tasting the chef's food? What do they really love drinking themselves. Sommeliers, in my experience, have always been as interesting as they are interested in wine.
Three of them stand out as the force to be reckoned with on the streets of London. If they were on a movie poster, the y would all have capes, leotards, and the power to see through a shabby bottle of wine with their X- ray palates. And they're probably Jedi knights too. Please welcome ... Mathieu Gaignon, the Prince of Petrus Alvaro Marcos García, the Thane of Theo Randall and Severine Sloboda, the Triumph of Trinity .

Mathieu Gaigon has wine for blood . He was born in Saumur in 1981 and tasting from vat with his winemaking father while considering the best to match with Mum's Sunday lunch. My experience of lunch at Pétrus was flawless. Slick service, impeccable cooking and a really fascinating selection of wines to match from Gaigon . They were unexpected, daring and precise. Everything I hoped for, but not necessarily what I expected from a super-prestigious joint such as Pétrus. Surprisingly, there are some absolute bargains on their list such as "wines from Greece, Portugal. Great wines from unique grape varieties unknown and very exciting for the consumer ". Gaigon 's aim is to send his customers away "110 per cent happy" and he gets a real kick from matching the perfect wine with Marcus Wareing's skillful dishes.

Alvaro Marcos García is from Altea, between Alicante and Valencia. Born in 1980, Alvaro was working as a waiter when wine grabbed his attention . Quickly rising through the ranks until he found himself working in two Michelin establishments, Arzak and Martin Berasategui. He's supremely diligent in overcoming challenges. "When I arrived in London I couldn't speak a word of English. In the UK we have wines from everywhere in the world, so the guest in the restaurant expects you to answer all their questions. " His current favourite wine match is crab salad, brusqueta and alioli with Fino Tio Pepe from Bodegas González Byass.
Up -and -coming regions for García are "Greece (Santorini and Thessaly), Spain (Bierzo and Toro) and Slovenia (Primorje)." And he's scouring the map for even more exciting regions.

Severine Sloboda was born in 1978 and began her fascination with wine aged 14 - watching her mum selling a bottle of Armagnac. "I understood at this moment that this world was huge and fascinating ," she says. Sloboda has worked with Georges Lepré (head sommelier at the Ritz in Paris) , with Jérôme Ligier (manager at the Criterion) and Christophe Papis (head sommelier at the Bleeding Heart) and for her, the key is "to be up to date to stay at the top of your field ". Adam Byatt is famous for cooking meat, and Severine will never forget her first match at Trinity , " a ballotine of foie gras with a prune d' Agen on the side and I used a Carménère grape from Chile. Foie gras and Carménère are native to south west France where it is common to use red wine for the foie gras ".
The advance of the sommelier is not an attack, more of a tickle, luring us into the Death Star so we can blow the bad guys to bits and have a tea-party on Endor with the finest wines in the Galaxy. Cheers!
www.ollysmith.com