Wine fundis with a taste for excellence

Sommeliers - do we need them? Don't they only recommend the priciest wines? How can they make our evening out better? These are some of the questions I have heard asked about these specialist wine fundis that five-star restaurants employ to advise guests.

When I called Tessa Miles to chat about her career, she was busy drawing a chart of the contents of the white wine fridge, marking the position of all the wines to help the waiters when the restaurant is busy. She has been in her post of sommelier at Signal restaurant at the Cape Grace hotel for just five months, but she exudes the confidence of someone well settled in her job.

She grew up in the Eastern Cape, but came to Cape Town where she worked in Aubergine restaurant and grew to love and know wine, thanks to two years tutoring from sommelier Joerg Pfuetzner, a dedicated and know-ledgeable teacher. He inspired her to enrol at the Cape Wine Academy for their two-year course, after which she headed to Portugal for an internship on the Douro river at Quinta de Naploles, working for Niepoort, a large producer.

"Truly the best experience of my life… I fell in love with the land, the culture as well as the people…" She stayed in Iberia, moving to Toroja to join South African winemaker Eben Sadi.

Today Tessa enjoys sampling wines from the Old and New Worlds, and relishes sharing her knowledge with diners who don't know Cape wines. She goes to great pains to make first-time visitors feel comfortable.

If she could work another harvest in Europe, Tessa would choose either Burgundy or the Mosel as her top destinations whereas Higgo Jacobs, sommelier at Catharina's restaurant in Steenberg, would settle for the Napa valley. Earlier this week Higgo was coming up for air after judging 130 cabernets for the annual Trophy Award show at Paarl. Purple-tongued and lipped, he was ready to get home to his textbooks with an exam looming - he's in the middle of studying for a law degree through Unisa.

This son of Calitzdorp started his career with Ronel Wiid at Hazendal, followed by study at Stellenbosch university before moving to Hoopenburg cellar for more practical experience. In London he worked for prestigious wine merchant Anthony Byrne and qualified for the Court of Master Sommeliers Certificate before coming home to take the post at Steenberg hotel. He is also a judge at the International Wine Challenge, the world's largest wine competition. An aspect of his work he enjoys is being able to compare Cape wines with European products for the benefit of overseas diners at Catharina's. 

What their work is about

1. What do you like most about your work?

Tessa: The interaction with guests, highlighted by moments when they taste what you have described in the wine and become as excited as I get.

Higgo: I enjoy working with people and hopefully enriching their experience, and being able to express my knowledge through the wine list.

2. What do you do when not advising guests?

Tessa: Staff training, replenishing of stock, revising the wine list, organising wine and dine evenings. Also private tastings for guests, visiting estates and trade tastings.

Higgo: Tasting new wines is the best part, but there is reading, planning and staff training.

3. What's been your most embarrassing moment at work?

Tessa: As the diners looked on expectantly, carefully "pouring" wine from a bottle that I had omitted to open.

Higgo: Having opened a bottle of good bubbly that guests had brought in - with a show-off flourish - I dropped it, luckily on the carpet, and we watched it roll around losing its contents…

4. What Cape wines would you recommend for this three-course Cape-style menu? First course: risotto with smoor snoek, touched with green chilli. Main course: venison steak with quince jelly and port sauce, with sweet potato gratin and green beans. Dessert: milk tart topped with pomegranate syrup.

Tessa: First course - a white blend from the Swartland region - Sequillo white 2007. Main course: A bold Pinot Noir. Dessert: The Signal Hill Vin de L'Empereur 2005 has a great cinnamon-cum- apricot mid palate with a slight burnt sugar finish, giving it a savoury lift on the end.

Higgo: First course: Cedarberg V Generations Chenin Blanc. Main course: Graham Beck Old Road Pinotage. Dessert: Klein Constantia's Vin de Constance.