Published on October 13, 2005

Sampling the world’s finest wines and getting paid for it may sound like a dream job, but it requires a discriminating nose and lots of self-control

For the last decade he’s been dedicated to the grape, yet Tiwa Yenwattana, winner of Thailand’s first Wine Professional Challenge, still strives to be a star sommelier.

“I’m embarrassed. I work in the industry so I should have been able to answer all the questions. But the tests prove that I need to read more books and taste more wine to be able to identify the wines of the world,” says the 32-year-old wine butler of the Oriental Hotel’s Le Normandie restaurant.

Every day the Roi Et native tastes at least 10 wines and spends 20 minutes studying the thick encyclopaedias compiled by American wine paragon Robert Parker.

He also reads monthly magazines Wine Today and Wine Spectator and every time a winemaker flies into town, he makes time for a chat.

Tiwa attended a three-month training course organised by French food agency Sopexa in Thailand almost 10 years ago when the economy was booming and the grape was fashionable.

This time his prize is a trip to the most recognised vineyards in Bordeaux and Champagne, as well as a stop at the London Wine Fair next May.

But to Tiwa the comp-etition has less to do with prizes than encouraging up and coming sommeliers to develop their knowledge.

“This is the first competition to be held since the economy crashed in 1997,” he says. “Before that, Sopexa organised an annual sommelier contest. I’m grateful to Siam Winery for launching this new competition, which will do much to upgrade human resources in our wine industry.”

Though Tiwa earned the highest scores in all three parts of the competition, he found the tests challenging, especially the one in which he had to taste wine blindfolded.

The contestants were given just 30 minutes to identify three glasses of white wine and three glasses of red by grape, origin and vintage.

“This was the most difficult part for me because at the restaurant I focus on the aroma and colour of the wine, not the taste.

“I spent too much time on those two aspects and with five minutes to go I still had the three reds to taste. That’s very bad time management.”

Tiwa is responsible for all alcoholic beverages served at Le Normandie. His main job, though, is to recommend wines to guests, to taste and serve them, and also to match wines to the restaurant’s degustation menus.

He also helps the hotel’s food and beverage manager update the wine list and ensures the 800 bottles of reds, whites and champagnes in the cellar are stored at the correct temperature and humidity. Most of the bottles are French and range in price from the low thousands to as high as Bt90,000.

“It’s the policy of the restaurant that every bottle must be tasted before it’s served. It helps me tell the character of each wine, which gives me confidence in recommending them to guests. That’s especially useful when recommending an expensive wine.”

Tiwa’s first encounter with the grape was through a Riesling.

“It was strange but nice,” he says with a smile. “Wine has much more complex aromas than whisky or beer.”

He’s looking forward to visiting France and says tasting wine in the grape-growing regions will develop his palate even further.

“I want to talk to the winemakers, to see how they grow and take care of the grapes and experience the climate in the vineyards.”

He predicts that next year’s challenge will draw more competitors and expects many of this year’s contestants to return more knowledgeable.

Kim Wachtveitl, Siam Winery’s director of business development and the competition’s organiser, is also pleased with the results.

“The challenge was very exciting for everyone involved. We were extremely impressed with the finalists,” he says. “We saw a high level of excellence that bodes well for Thailand. We are now in the process of preparing for next year’s challenge and I am confident that there will be even more participants”.

Tiwa has some advice for anyone thinking of taking part in next year’s competition.

“Read every day and take notes. Try to taste every wine you read about. You’ll never recognise the aroma of raspberry or currant unless you taste them. Talk to your friends, ask your guests and your senior staff to share their knowledge with you”.

Juthamas Cholthavornpong

The Nation

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