Liberty Wines course guides guests through a wine list

It's a fundamental wine service skill to be able to guide guests through the wine list. Jungmin Seo takes a seat at a Liberty Wines and Drinks Trust course teaching just that

At Liberty Wines, Monday mornings don't have to start with a cup of black coffee. In fact, coffee is best avoided before a sip of creamy Chardonnay or chocolatey Barolo, as it can interfere with the tastebuds. On this occasion, the dozen or so students attending the Liberty Wine Academy programme are greeted by a crisp glass of Pinot Grigio – although most of it, admittedly, returns to the spittoon.

"Even though the wine has high acidity, you wouldn't say that to the customer," explains Clare Whitehead, head of education at Liberty Wines, suggesting alternative adjectives such as "fresh" or "zesty". She stands to the left of a row of wines – 15 in total, including a bottle of Champagne and Prosecco, all of which have been chosen specifically for the course.

The display was selected by staff at Liberty Wines, the premium on-trade wine merchant based in London's Clapham North. The company was founded by David Gleave in 1997, and its imported and distributed wine portfolio now covers 26 countries and 375 producers.

Whitehead, who devised the course 10 years ago, was keen to translate the technical knowledge that is taught in the Wine & Spirit Education Trust (WSET) qualifications into a practical on-trade setting, so that front-line hospitality staff can "move guests around the wine list" without relying on jargon

She says: "WSET goes from Level 1, which is more of an introduction to wine, to Level 2, which is much more detailed. This [Liberty Wine Academy] is around the Level 1 mark, but it's much more based around the language of wine and day-to-day service. We're passionate about the best wines and we'd like to speak about them in the best way."

Her course is structured around key themes, including tips on tasting, selling wines, and food and wine pairing. She provides theory-based shortcuts for hospitality staff who might not have the time to learn every single vintage on the wine list, such as using a wine's local climate to infer tasting notes. Whitehead's course has historically been tailored to Liberty Wines clients looking to upskill staff. However, this particular session was held in collaboration with Develop, the education arm of industry charity the Drinks Trust.

Develop first launched as a drinks-led vocational hardship initiative in April 2022 with the aim of helping 550 beneficiaries in its first year of operation. Having already surpassed that goal in November, the scheme continues to offer training opportunities, such as CV writing and sector-specific masterclasses, for the next generation of hospitality professionals.

Liberty Wines joins Develop's line-up of industry provider partnerships, which have included the Institute of Brewing & Distilling, Mixology, the European Bartender School, Barfection and Drinks Community. Alexandra Miller, Develop programme manager at the Drinks Trust, was particularly keen to dismantle some of the financial barriers to wine education by launching this course.

"Wine is massive for people who work in service roles, but [wine education] can be a really expensive thing to do," she says. "The higher levels of the WSET, like Level 3, cost £700 to do. The Develop programme stands out because it's assistance for people who want to go into these roles and do these courses, and there really isn't enough of that out there."

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The availability of wine education courses has diminished further in recent months due to cash-strapped hospitality operators having to juggle funds for staff training with soaring energy bills and the rising cost of living.

Miller adds: "A lot of the operators are feeling the crunch at the moment. The help we are giving to individuals is a benefit to the businesses as well. Training and education is key for staff retention. It keeps people engaged with the work they are doing and keeps them passionate about their job."

Candidates were asked to write a 300-word personal statement on how the course would further their career, supplemented by relevant documentation demonstrating their financial eligibility for a space on the Liberty Wine Academy programme. The session was offered for free to diversify the pool of applicants. Those in attendance ranged from university students pursuing careers in hospitality to staff at Michelin-starred restaurants wanting to boost their wine vocabulary.

The same programme is due to be run again in Manchester in late February. Develop has been liaising directly with the Department for Work and Pensions in order to ensure that as many job-seekers for wine service positions have access to the course as possible.

Miller adds: "We want to keep going. This is a long-term programme. We want to help as many people as we can and help support them in the best way that suits their needs, so I absolutely hope to replicate this in the future – if Liberty will have us again. I think there will always be a need for this training."

Training is also critical to demystifying wine service more broadly, which – financials aside – sometimes has a reputation for being "pretentious". It's a description used by one of the course attendees, Abraham Sung, who felt daunted by the wine sector, despite his eight years in hospitality, most of which was dedicated to foodservice.

During the course lunch break, he says: "I never hated wine, but I never had the chance to meet people who can share the knowledge. The samples [today] are really well picked. It's opened my mind; I actually thought wine was too pretentious, but now I can identify the flavour notes, the taste and the aromas."

His coursemate Meg Szramka, who is taking the WSET Level 1 in conjunction with the Liberty Wines programme, adds that she is especially grateful for the extra sense of community cultivated during face-to-face sessions. "I'm doing Level 1 online, so I find it quite hard because I'm not in the classroom, but courses like this one with networking give me a real motivation to explore more. I would love to find a career in wine."

Whitehead herself admits that "there is a lot of pomp around wine", which can be "terrifying for some people". But she adds that to some extent wine warrants this kind of reaction, given that it is such a "huge subject", crossing cultures, climates and continents.

"When I started learning about wine, I found that I really liked it but I also found it overwhelming," she confesses. "I didn't really remember a lot of the courses I went on, so I wanted to design a course about the things that I remembered and that helped me."

What should her students take away from the Liberty Wine Academy? "Just a little bit more passion about wine, a little bit more understanding." She pauses before adding: "And not being scared."