The only Wine Trivia I needed to know, I learned in Kindergarten

Every night I post wine trivia questions for my staff on a dry erase board.  Through out the night the employees place their initials next to the best answer.  I continue asking questions and tallying their scores, until the last question is placed and then the person with the most correct answers takes a bottle of wine home.  I do this because it keeps my employees thinking about wine.  It  might even trigger a conversation at a table.  It is just one of the ways I try to educate my staff and keep them thinking about wine.

Another method is providing regular wine tastings.  This past Monday I decided to practice blind tasting with the group.  There were about 15 employees in attendance and each at a different level.  Some were hostesses just promoted to cocktail servers, others bus boys now working as server assistants and their were veteran servers.  The knowledge pool was all over the place.

I handed out our Blind Tasting Grid, the same grids the Court of Master Sommeliers uses for exams.   When I started tasting with them I realized (more…)