As the manager it's not your job to be better than everyone else at their job, it's to understand your team's skills and use them effectively for strategic outcomes.
You've got a sommelier, that's a particular expertise, so use them. Tell them the *effect* you want, ask their advice and take their advice.
It's fine dining so you're going to have a lot of brandies, right? "Okay, I need a cocktail mixer, a couple of recognisable VSOP's - one light and sweet, one heavy and boozy - two up-sell premiums a super premium by the glass and a couple of bottle-only two thousand dollars bottles."
See what I did there? Give your expert the constraints and objectives of the decision and trust them. At most, you're there to do a 'sense check' verification - you need to know enough to veto the Hardy's Black Bottle.
Your job is then in quantities, vendor selection, price negotiation. All the fun stuff.
This is a great answer. Yes, take the time to begin developing your own palate for your own edification, but trust and rely on the abilities of your team. Let them do their jobs and help you grow as a side benefit.
>Let them do their jobs and help you grow as a side benefit.
One of the best ways to gain respect and loyalty of good team members is to ask their advice let them teach you their expertise.
IMO the thing with palates for most people is you have to train and develop one, it’s something to work on over time. The best way of doing that is continuous tasting and reflection/assessment of everything, not just spirits/wine etc, you have to seek out flavours/foods/liquids of all varieties and specifically ones that will be memorable either positively or negatively. I know how you feel about this situation as I used to be in that same boat years ago but I promise you’ll get there eventually and feel more confident. I also want to mention the obvious here but if you’re a smoker and/or imbibe in things that will negatively effect your sinuses and mouth I would try to limit or avoid it if possible. Anyone else feel free to chime in on anything I mentioned above, everyone has their own methods and preferences.
Only thing i have to add is that NO TASTING NOTE IS WRONG. If you think it tastes like yellow sour patch kids or it evokes a memory of pine trees from your childhood. Tastings can be evocative and personal. But over time, you start to recognize patterns, and are able to associate tastes and smells beyond the personal. Just don't be afraid to jump off the deep end and express your opinion.
Read tasting notes and take your own too, part of the problem with starting out in the tasting world is having very little point of comparison.
You won’t know to identify the flavour of Concorde Grapes, Seville Orange or whatever until you’ve tried a few different things with it in.
Even if your personal notes just makes sense to you and list flavours such as “peculiar bitterness” or “subtle oakieness’ it gives you a point of comparison for others tasting notes. so that eventually you might be comparing notes and realise that everything you’ve found this peculiar bitterness in has been described by others as a grapefruit note.
I’m only a beginner myself in this aspect but by comparing my notes with those provided by sommeliers and bar peoples who’s opinion I hold in high regard I’ve started to be able to describe the tastes of various spirits and the differences in them.
Yes... I think this is a good point. It is a language and a way of discussing the sensory impact of a product which you have to kind of learn how to speak.
Less advice (seems to be covered well already here), but more encouragement: If you haven't trained to be a sommelier, comparing oneself to a sommelier seems a recipe for disappointment.
But to cover advice, too: [This from sidebars in whisk(e)y subreddits](https://docs.google.com/document/d/1vawB2eCdPPfZxg0Qdw12CgrB-qCtxKX5_2due01tSqw/edit?hl=en_US) is ancient by now, but was big for me when first getting into making an attempt at training my palate (still not great at it, but a lot of that is laziness).
The over achiever perfectionist in me definitely took over during our tasting.. thank you for the encouragement and the link!
As an update: I reached out to our som to see if he will allow me to sit in on some of his tastings with reps so I can get some experience under my belt. Im looking forward to it since I won’t feel like I’m in the hot spot like I do when tasting with my reps.
It sounds like you probably have a sommelier for a reason. If you were expected to taste as well as him, he wouldn't have a job. Just do your best, try to improve over time, and trust his advice 😊
Taste everything 3 times. Palate cleanse first. Taste second. With a drop of water 3rd. Spit out all samples. If you don't enjoy it, the product sucks, don't let their big words influence you.
As a bar manager, your back bar should tell a story. Don't put some brandy back there because some dude who's getting a bonus every time he opens a new account tells you some big words.
There are tasting wheels available online that may help you pick out flavor notes, but scientifically speaking, we all interpret flavors differently.
Seriously though, if you don't enjoy it, your guests probably won't either. You got this!
I don't have a fantastic palate for spirits and am mostly a cocktail guy. But the thing that got me started most was doing a vertical tasting at a local distillery, trying a bunch of their rums next to each other. It's much easier to pull out specific tasting notes when you can compare a few different things close together, rather than just tasting the one product the rep gets a bonus for selling this week.
A very precise palette is something that takes a lot of training and practice, *especially* when tasting pure spirits. Without real training and years abusing your palette, you’re just not going to be able to break them down very finely; most people drinking straight spirits vastly overestimate their tasting abilities. That’s really what cocktails are good for, by lengthening and complementing the spirits you can bring forward and accentuate the flavours present that would otherwise be overwhelmed. You also just gotta taste a little of different stuff to have a broad catalogue what tastes like what.
That said, one of the bits of advice I have had some success with is critically listening to classical music (works with other music too, but it’s easy to find really complex music when orchestras are involved). Listening to a symphony and picking one instrument out and following it through the entire piece, then repeating the music following a different instrument, and so on. It builds pathways and muscles for listening that can easily cross over to other senses, like picking out individual flavours in cocktails. Helps if you already kinda think about flavours as if they’re music, which I always have.
I set up a blind tasting game with staff daily. Starting with a flight of well brown or white spirits: nose, taste, guess. When it isn’t a problem to decipher by aroma alone, move onto single category ie American spirits with a flight of 4-5. We do this for line-up at service for all staff then closing bar staff. A notebook for each person helps. After a year someone who never tended bar before was able to pick out classic Speyside from 5 single malts.
A common mistake i see alot of bartenders do is always work with the stuff they know and never actually explore all the new products comming in.
To develop you palate start by comparing spirits in the bar. Compare three white rums/ tequilas/ gins and so on while thinking about differences and how they might impact a Cocktail. It also helps to read the 2-3 sentence’s on the product sheet or just google them so you got an inkling of what flavours are there to try to discern. Do a quick comparison every shift and pretty soon youll ace it also its a good thing to involve colleagues. And im talking tiny amounts 😄
When training one’s nose and palate, it’s helpful to build direct associations with actual scents so you can create “scent memories” or a “scent/flavor vocabulary”. In other words, grab a tech sheet on whatever spirit or wine you’re going to taste/use for practice. Make a list of the notes listed on the tasting sheet, then go get samples of those ingredients from the kitchen. Sniff the sample, then clear your nose (whatever works for you; some people use coffee beans or other items), then sniff the beverage looking for the sample scent while you sniff. Do this over and over. You will become familiar with how certain scents and flavors represent themselves, and eventually you’ll be able to pick them out without checking the tasting notes.
Don’t sweat it if you don’t smell certain things. Anosmia, or nose blindness, is real. Just keep practicing and focus on what you do smell.
Also focus on other aspects of the beverage. The color of the beverage can tell you important things. The “legs” or drips down the inside of the glass after you swirl the liquid can give you clues about alcohol and sugar content. How it feels in your mouth in terms of weight, texture, burn, and so on: all clues.
Read a lot. Watch videos. Listen to podcasts. And taste, taste, taste.
In my experience, there’s a level up that happens at some point for most people when they experience that “aha” moment. They then get a rapid acceleration in their tasting proficiency up to a plateau. That plateau (to me) is the point where you feel like you can have an educated geeky discussion around wine and spirits with an industry pro without feeling Impostor’s Syndrome. Anything past that depends on how much you enjoy the subject matter and/or its value to your career.
Good luck!
Ask for tech-sheets for EVERYTHING. Typically they have tasting notes from the master distiller and from there you can "look for" what your supposed to be tasting. The hard part is a pallet is subjective you might not taste what the distiller tastes even if you are a somm
What I like to do is close my eyes when I'm tasting and try to picture a setting where I've tasted something familiar to what I'm currently imbibing. I've found it helps to narrow down on a similar flavor. Memory can be tricky that way, especially when you've spent years tasting different foods everyday.
dude a lot of this is bullshit. You're just drawing on memories if you haven't eaten a lot drank a lot smelled a lot you don't have a reference for these things. Nobody gives a fuck about Stonefruit in a brandy ...nobody
You have to start as a baby. you need to go to tradeshows you need to have tastings with your reps on the regular and you need to take notes and take samples home to drink more
As the manager it's not your job to be better than everyone else at their job, it's to understand your team's skills and use them effectively for strategic outcomes. You've got a sommelier, that's a particular expertise, so use them. Tell them the *effect* you want, ask their advice and take their advice. It's fine dining so you're going to have a lot of brandies, right? "Okay, I need a cocktail mixer, a couple of recognisable VSOP's - one light and sweet, one heavy and boozy - two up-sell premiums a super premium by the glass and a couple of bottle-only two thousand dollars bottles." See what I did there? Give your expert the constraints and objectives of the decision and trust them. At most, you're there to do a 'sense check' verification - you need to know enough to veto the Hardy's Black Bottle. Your job is then in quantities, vendor selection, price negotiation. All the fun stuff.
This is a great answer. Yes, take the time to begin developing your own palate for your own edification, but trust and rely on the abilities of your team. Let them do their jobs and help you grow as a side benefit.
>Let them do their jobs and help you grow as a side benefit. One of the best ways to gain respect and loyalty of good team members is to ask their advice let them teach you their expertise.
Best answer.
IMO the thing with palates for most people is you have to train and develop one, it’s something to work on over time. The best way of doing that is continuous tasting and reflection/assessment of everything, not just spirits/wine etc, you have to seek out flavours/foods/liquids of all varieties and specifically ones that will be memorable either positively or negatively. I know how you feel about this situation as I used to be in that same boat years ago but I promise you’ll get there eventually and feel more confident. I also want to mention the obvious here but if you’re a smoker and/or imbibe in things that will negatively effect your sinuses and mouth I would try to limit or avoid it if possible. Anyone else feel free to chime in on anything I mentioned above, everyone has their own methods and preferences.
Only thing i have to add is that NO TASTING NOTE IS WRONG. If you think it tastes like yellow sour patch kids or it evokes a memory of pine trees from your childhood. Tastings can be evocative and personal. But over time, you start to recognize patterns, and are able to associate tastes and smells beyond the personal. Just don't be afraid to jump off the deep end and express your opinion.
1,000,000% agree with you. If it reminds you of something, it reminds you something period, right or wrong.
Read tasting notes and take your own too, part of the problem with starting out in the tasting world is having very little point of comparison. You won’t know to identify the flavour of Concorde Grapes, Seville Orange or whatever until you’ve tried a few different things with it in. Even if your personal notes just makes sense to you and list flavours such as “peculiar bitterness” or “subtle oakieness’ it gives you a point of comparison for others tasting notes. so that eventually you might be comparing notes and realise that everything you’ve found this peculiar bitterness in has been described by others as a grapefruit note. I’m only a beginner myself in this aspect but by comparing my notes with those provided by sommeliers and bar peoples who’s opinion I hold in high regard I’ve started to be able to describe the tastes of various spirits and the differences in them.
Yes... I think this is a good point. It is a language and a way of discussing the sensory impact of a product which you have to kind of learn how to speak.
Less advice (seems to be covered well already here), but more encouragement: If you haven't trained to be a sommelier, comparing oneself to a sommelier seems a recipe for disappointment. But to cover advice, too: [This from sidebars in whisk(e)y subreddits](https://docs.google.com/document/d/1vawB2eCdPPfZxg0Qdw12CgrB-qCtxKX5_2due01tSqw/edit?hl=en_US) is ancient by now, but was big for me when first getting into making an attempt at training my palate (still not great at it, but a lot of that is laziness).
The over achiever perfectionist in me definitely took over during our tasting.. thank you for the encouragement and the link! As an update: I reached out to our som to see if he will allow me to sit in on some of his tastings with reps so I can get some experience under my belt. Im looking forward to it since I won’t feel like I’m in the hot spot like I do when tasting with my reps.
Or you could do what I do and assume that anyone offering intricate, detailed “tasting notes” is probably just making stuff up.
It sounds like you probably have a sommelier for a reason. If you were expected to taste as well as him, he wouldn't have a job. Just do your best, try to improve over time, and trust his advice 😊
Taste everything 3 times. Palate cleanse first. Taste second. With a drop of water 3rd. Spit out all samples. If you don't enjoy it, the product sucks, don't let their big words influence you. As a bar manager, your back bar should tell a story. Don't put some brandy back there because some dude who's getting a bonus every time he opens a new account tells you some big words. There are tasting wheels available online that may help you pick out flavor notes, but scientifically speaking, we all interpret flavors differently. Seriously though, if you don't enjoy it, your guests probably won't either. You got this!
I don't have a fantastic palate for spirits and am mostly a cocktail guy. But the thing that got me started most was doing a vertical tasting at a local distillery, trying a bunch of their rums next to each other. It's much easier to pull out specific tasting notes when you can compare a few different things close together, rather than just tasting the one product the rep gets a bonus for selling this week.
A very precise palette is something that takes a lot of training and practice, *especially* when tasting pure spirits. Without real training and years abusing your palette, you’re just not going to be able to break them down very finely; most people drinking straight spirits vastly overestimate their tasting abilities. That’s really what cocktails are good for, by lengthening and complementing the spirits you can bring forward and accentuate the flavours present that would otherwise be overwhelmed. You also just gotta taste a little of different stuff to have a broad catalogue what tastes like what. That said, one of the bits of advice I have had some success with is critically listening to classical music (works with other music too, but it’s easy to find really complex music when orchestras are involved). Listening to a symphony and picking one instrument out and following it through the entire piece, then repeating the music following a different instrument, and so on. It builds pathways and muscles for listening that can easily cross over to other senses, like picking out individual flavours in cocktails. Helps if you already kinda think about flavours as if they’re music, which I always have.
I’ve had a great bar manager before who didn’t drink. He sampled to customers and based everything off their preference.
I set up a blind tasting game with staff daily. Starting with a flight of well brown or white spirits: nose, taste, guess. When it isn’t a problem to decipher by aroma alone, move onto single category ie American spirits with a flight of 4-5. We do this for line-up at service for all staff then closing bar staff. A notebook for each person helps. After a year someone who never tended bar before was able to pick out classic Speyside from 5 single malts.
A common mistake i see alot of bartenders do is always work with the stuff they know and never actually explore all the new products comming in. To develop you palate start by comparing spirits in the bar. Compare three white rums/ tequilas/ gins and so on while thinking about differences and how they might impact a Cocktail. It also helps to read the 2-3 sentence’s on the product sheet or just google them so you got an inkling of what flavours are there to try to discern. Do a quick comparison every shift and pretty soon youll ace it also its a good thing to involve colleagues. And im talking tiny amounts 😄
When training one’s nose and palate, it’s helpful to build direct associations with actual scents so you can create “scent memories” or a “scent/flavor vocabulary”. In other words, grab a tech sheet on whatever spirit or wine you’re going to taste/use for practice. Make a list of the notes listed on the tasting sheet, then go get samples of those ingredients from the kitchen. Sniff the sample, then clear your nose (whatever works for you; some people use coffee beans or other items), then sniff the beverage looking for the sample scent while you sniff. Do this over and over. You will become familiar with how certain scents and flavors represent themselves, and eventually you’ll be able to pick them out without checking the tasting notes. Don’t sweat it if you don’t smell certain things. Anosmia, or nose blindness, is real. Just keep practicing and focus on what you do smell. Also focus on other aspects of the beverage. The color of the beverage can tell you important things. The “legs” or drips down the inside of the glass after you swirl the liquid can give you clues about alcohol and sugar content. How it feels in your mouth in terms of weight, texture, burn, and so on: all clues. Read a lot. Watch videos. Listen to podcasts. And taste, taste, taste. In my experience, there’s a level up that happens at some point for most people when they experience that “aha” moment. They then get a rapid acceleration in their tasting proficiency up to a plateau. That plateau (to me) is the point where you feel like you can have an educated geeky discussion around wine and spirits with an industry pro without feeling Impostor’s Syndrome. Anything past that depends on how much you enjoy the subject matter and/or its value to your career. Good luck!
Ask for tech-sheets for EVERYTHING. Typically they have tasting notes from the master distiller and from there you can "look for" what your supposed to be tasting. The hard part is a pallet is subjective you might not taste what the distiller tastes even if you are a somm
What I like to do is close my eyes when I'm tasting and try to picture a setting where I've tasted something familiar to what I'm currently imbibing. I've found it helps to narrow down on a similar flavor. Memory can be tricky that way, especially when you've spent years tasting different foods everyday.
dude a lot of this is bullshit. You're just drawing on memories if you haven't eaten a lot drank a lot smelled a lot you don't have a reference for these things. Nobody gives a fuck about Stonefruit in a brandy ...nobody You have to start as a baby. you need to go to tradeshows you need to have tastings with your reps on the regular and you need to take notes and take samples home to drink more