W

ine steward Bobby Corputty raised a glass of wine close to his nose with the confidence of a connoisseur.

"This one is cabernet sauvignon," he said confidently.

Bobby and his four other colleagues were participating in a sommelier test held by the Decanter Wine House.

"There were unexpected questions in the exam, such as how to handle guests. Also, I focused on the wine and totally forgot about matching wine and food," Bobby said.

Although Bobby graduated from a school of hospitality, the 32-year-old was pretty clueless about wine when he joined the Decanter Wine House. It was Yohan Handoyo, the general manager that taught him about wine.

Wine lover Yohan is also the author of Rahasia Wine (Wine's Secret), which was published in 2006 by Gramedia.

On Thursday, the training focused on salesmanship, how to handle customer complaints, as well as discussing problems with translating knowledge into action, while the Friday training focused on wine knowledge, including wine tasting, theory, food and wine pairing and wine service skills.

The training was a wonderful experience for Bobby. Last May, Bobby won the first prize in the wine butler competition held at the "Wine n Cheese" festival at Kelapa Gading, North Jakarta. After competing with senior sommeliers from major five-star hotels and restaurants in Jakarta, Bobby aced both the written test and blind tasting test.

In Indonesia, Yohan said, people working as sommeliers rarely received proper training and education.

"Unlike other professions such as medicine or finance, which have a clear path of education and accreditation, every one that works with wine can claim they are sommeliers. In fact, there are respectable institutions such as the Court of Master Sommeliers that provide education and accreditation for professional sommeliers," he said.

Decanter's operations manager, Almi Imron, who also took the sommelier test, said that he was interested in taking the test because he wanted to increase his knowledge about wine.

"It is my responsibility as someone who works in the hospitality sector; we want guests to enjoy wine, and to be able to serve the guests we need to understand wine," he said.

Becoming a sommelier, he added, was not easy because there were many skills to be mastered.

Yohan said that his restaurant was committed to seriously educating Indonesians to become world class sommelies through structured and continuous training, requiring sommeliers to complete six months of training.

The six month training includes basic wine theory, such as basic winemaking, viticulture, wine and health, wine service, matching wine with food and basic culinary and wine laws in France, Italy and Australia.

Almi said that during the training, the participants learned about different wine styles and grapes, from the Old World (France and Italy) to the New World (such as Australia, Chile or Argentina).

As well as learning about wine characters and flavors, the participants also learn basic wine service skills.

There are several types of wine including red, white and sparkling and each type needs special treatment and serving. Red wine is best served at room temperature, below 18 degrees Celsius, while white wine and sparkling needs to be served between 6 and 8 degrees Celsius.

"The choice of glass is also important. If the wrong glass is used, the wine aroma will not be released properly and people may assume the wine is corked. For example, if you serve pinot noir in a glass with little air space, it will taste different," Almi said.

After the training, the participants must undergo tests that include wine service skills, wine knowledge (basic knowledge, wine laws of France and Italy, major grape varieties, wine faults and glassware), blind tasting, product knowledge, basic culinary knowledge, wine and food pairing as well as salesmanship and personal skills.

"The test we held that day was nearly on par with international standards," he said.

The sommelier test included both written and oral sections. The written test examined wine knowledge, while the table test examined hospitality skills.

The panel of judges included culinary figure, Bondan Winarno and vineyard owners I.B Rai Budarsa and Mike Jansz.

Chef Johannes who has worked for the Hilton International hotel chain for more than 18 years was testing the sommeliers' wine knowledge, while career coach, Rene Suhardono, scored the sommeliers on skills such as enthusiasm, motivation and passion.

The participants were also required to master the art of opening wine bottles. While bottles with corks are opened with bottle openers, screw caps can be opened by hand.

Sparkling wine, however, should be opened more delicately because it contains carbon dioxide.

"Old wine usually has sediment, which is not dangerous for health, but may be unpleasant to drink. To be able to see the sediment, you must put a candle under the bottle while pouring the wine into a decanter," Almi said.

"The Sommelier must be calm and must also be able to differentiate between a wine that is corked, from its color and taste."

According to Yohan, a good sommelier should have a deep understanding of wine, from product knowledge, to wine tasting techniques, to matching wine with food. He said that sommeliers should also be passionate.

"As far as I know, Indonesian sommeliers have yet to have certificates. Therefore, I want to set standards for sommelier training and certification in Indonesia," said Yohan, who is often invited to do wine training and wine judging abroad.

He said that not all of his employees would undergo sommelier training and testing. Only selected candidates, who had passed a strict talent scouting process, would have the opportunity, he added.

"We have to do this because the education and test process are not easy or cheap. However, the management does cover these costs," he said.

After undergoing the test, both Almi and Bobby decided to learn more about wine. Almi was determined to master the skill of matching wine and food. He said that most restaurants usually stuck to the basics: red wine for red meat and white wine for white meat.

"Wine pairing is not as strict as that. For example, I can recommend tuna loin with red wine if the sauce is mainly made from wine reduction and contains pepper. You need to look at what is dominant, the sauce or the meat," he said.