Funny sommelier stories: Moments on the job

Looking through the archives of Confessions of a Sommelier from Decanter magazine, we picked out some of the funniest stories…

Funniest moments on the job – Sommelier mistakes

Credit: Lucie Lang / Alamy

‘I was once flown to Sardinia for a 50th birthday. One of the host’s presents was a custom-made decanter. I was asked to use it, so took it away and seconds later it was on the floor in a million pieces.

‘No one laughed, but looking back now, I can raise a smile,’ Gal Zohar, speaking to Decanter when wine buyer for the Ottolenghi restaurants.

‘Before I became a sommelier I worked in a bar in Munich. I was trying to open a bottle that had a plastic cork, finally putting it between my knees to get a better grip. But I lost control and most of the wine ended up on my customer’s face,’ said Ali Rasouli Nia, speaking when he was head sommelier at Michael Wignall at The Latymer, Pennyhill Park Hotel.

Entertaining customers

‘On Valentine’s Day, a couple bought the most expensive bottles on our wine list. We naturally assumed they were in love. In reality they were celebrating their separation… Each to their own!’ said Stéphane Morand, sommelier at Le Cercle à Bourges.

‘We once had a table of financial crooks seated next to a table of investigative policemen. It got very exciting, very rapidly,’ said Christian Thorsholt Jacobsen, speaking when head sommelier at MASH in London. He is now sommelier at Restaurant Anarki in Copenhagen.

Marinela Ivanova, beverage manager on-board The World, Residences at Sea, said, ‘A guest read my name tag and saw the word ‘sommelier’. He thought I came from Somalia!’