Grandmasters of Wine (II): Why Every Hungarian Waiter Should Have Lunch at the Kempinski

Monday’s post about the Bortársaság‘s “Wine Academy” reminded me to follow up on a related story I’ve been sitting on for a while. Back in January, I heard that the Kempinski Hotel Corvinus Budapest had just finished putting the members of its restaurant staff through a comprehensive training program aimed at increasing their knowledge of all aspects of wine, while at the same time thoroughly re-working the wine list. When I gave a call to ask if this was really serious or just the usual PR, they invited me over for a bite of lunch at the hotel’s pleasant Bistro Jardin (disclosure: it was on the house) and the opportunity to find out for myself.

First of all, when I say “comprehensive” training program, I mean comprehensive. The course, which was organized by the Bolygó Hollandi (“Flying Dutchman”) wine academy – which is co-owned by chief sommelier Gábor Hollandi – lasted upwards of two months. It included not just lots of theory, but a massive amount of “practical” knowledge, with staffers having to taste more than 100 of the wines offered by the hotel, from Villány to Bordeaux to South Africa. And the results? From what I can tell, it’s paid off in spades. The staffers I subjected to a “pop quiz” about certain wines not only knew their stuff. More importantly, they also knew how to talk wine in a near pitch-perfect way.

Don’t worry if you can’t read it – someone will be happy to help you.

What’s interesting – but sort of depressing – about this is not just that the Kempinski can plausibly claim to have the most oenology-minded staff of any hotel or restaurant in Budapest. It’s that they can claim to have one of the only staffs that knows how to actually help patrons match the food they are ordering with an appropriate wine, and in a cheerful and non-condescending manner. There isn’t a high-end restaurant in town that couldn’t benefit from sending its staffers over for a quick “course” in how wine service is done right, especially because doing it right usually results in a decent increase in “wine-spend” per patron. On the other hand, many high-end restaurants in this town could benefit from simply reminding their servers to promptly take beverage orders after diners sit down, and to try to make sure patrons’ glasses don’t go empty.

Regarding for the new list, Hollandi, food and beverage director Simon Zaglmann and service manager Zoltán Tóth have put together a wonderfully balanced and cleanly-designed borlap, including a handy “sommelier short list” featuring a few dozen staff favorites. In the process, they apparently cleared out countless dud bottles from the hotel’s cellar. While I would like it if the “entry” prices on the list were a little lower – the cheapest red is well over Ft 5,000 – the markups are not extortionate. (I showed the list to a very budget-conscious connoisseur I know, who said it all struck him as fair.) And at least you can be pretty sure of picking a wine you’ll actually like, and feeling good while doing it.