The lineup is the preshift meeting of a professional restaurant staff during which new menu items, daily features, and beverage education are shared with the service staff. As beverage hospitality pros, our mission is to review these new products, learn a little about them, and practice describing them in a manner that will be irresistible to our clientele.

Eyes Wide Shut

Blind tasting, which teaches us how to taste properly and keeps us focused on the wine itself and how it fits into the range of what our guests have enjoyed, is an essential training tool to use at lineup. But whoever is leading the tasting should steer the conversation away from “What is this?” and toward “Is this good wine?” Otherwise, blind tasting at lineup becomes a stage for a handful of staffers who excel at guessing, and such a party-trick atmosphere doesn’t build confidence among the rest. Learning to assess quality in a team format keeps everyone on the same page when tasting anything, be it a highly allocated gem or a new house wine. Here are some training tips:

Observe each staff member as you’re working through a wine. Keep your management eye on the most inexperienced among them. Who’s stone silent? Who’s not taking notes? Who’s shrinking back? And rein in the show-offs; this is not their personal stage on which to shine.

Stress price points. Ask the staff, “What is a fair price for this wine?” or “What would you pay for this in a restaurant?” Keep the guesses in broad price ranges (e.g., $25 to $40, $60 to $85, over $100). The hope is that you’re presenting fine wines that over-deliver!

Don’t taste blind when you’re in a hurry. But if your doors are opening in five minutes, it’s better for you to show your team members the bottle (labels are evocative), tell them where the wine is located on the list, and give them your short description, than it is to do nothing at all.

Grand Inquisition

In the interest of maximizing time, taste in a disciplined way, following a wine from appearance to finish. Avoid getting lost in the forest of descriptions, and stay focused on assessing structural elements such as tannin, acidity, alcohol, sweetness, and oak levels. Fruit quality is probably the most important flavor and/or fragrance element. Your guests can happily relate to delicious fruit descriptors. Here are some questions to ask the troops:

How would you describe this to a guest? The answers should be simple, using words that are food-related and sound delicious; for example, “tart and lean” can be more attractively presented as “light and lemony crisp.” Anticipate what your guests would like to know about a wine and the questions they might ask: “Is it light or full?” “How dry is it?” “What would you compare it to?” Have the staff take turns describing the wine. Avoid esoteric wine-speak!

Who would you sell this to? (For example: A Pinot drinker? A lover of off-dry Riesling?) Regardless of a wine’s name and origin, it’s the flavor and texture that are going to make friends.

What would you compare it to? Especially if a wine is obscure, comparing it to one that’s familiar is very useful, both to the staff and to your guests. For example, a Nerello Mascalese red from Mt. Etna could be likened to a medium-bodied California Zinfandel.

Facts First

An easy rule for lineup is for staff to be able to convey to patrons the primary words that appear on the front and back labels - the name of the producer (properly pronounced), the grape variety or varieties used to make the wine, and where the grapes were grown. Also, staff should be prepared to speak about the production method that defines the wine’s style, such as fortification (higher alcohol) or late-harvested (sweetness). Beyond all facts, however, is the server’s ability to describe the wine to a guest [ital]simply and with honest enthusiasm[ital].

Finally, a reminder to sommeliers: “There are 15 of them and one of me.” Sharing your wealth of information with the team at lineup will help move your inventory and will provide backup for you in the heat of service.

Madeline Triffon, MS, is wine and beverage director and corporate wine educator for the Detroit-based Matt Prentice Restaurant Group. She was the first American woman to have earned the title of Master Sommelier.