Yes, I taste wine for a living

From a humble beginning in Uthiru, Kiambu County, to the world stage of wine tasting, Geoffrey Kariuki is a force to reckon with in the hospitality industry. He is one of Kenya’s few sommeliers, (wine tasters) in the business. Geoffrey is representing not just Kenya, but Africa this August at The Wines of South Africa (WOSA) Sommelier Cup 2016, an international competition pitting the world’s top wine tasters against each other for the global title of the world’s best sommelier.

On graduation from Ruthimitu High School in 2004, Geoffrey knew he would work in the hospitality industry. “My mum showed me how to cook when I was young - I first fell in love with food and thereafter wine, once I discovered how the two complement each other,” he says.

In December 2006, after a year of study at Air Travel and Related Studies Centre, Geoffrey graduated with a diploma in hotel management. He sought for work to no avail. For two years, he worked with his mother on the family farm in Uthiru.

In July 2009, Geoffrey applied for an opportunity to work at the then opening Artcaffe restaurant at Westgate Mall in Nairobi. He was offered a two-week training on customer service and an exam on the same. He passed the exam and was quickly hired as a waiter.

“I had never served a table before.”

Geoffrey was so intimidated on his first day at work, he recalls two guests waving to get his attention – he had been trying to ignore them to avoid serving them. He recalls that they ordered a Chardonnay, but at the time, he had no idea what that was.

He approached a colleague who was mentoring him at work, and admitted to not knowing what the customers had ordered.

After his shift, Geoffrey reflected on his day and decided to learn as much as he could about wine. After work, he would go to a cyber café and search the internet for all the information he could get on wine.

His passion begun to grow, and soon, he was offered bottles of wine to taste, putting to practice what he was studying online. Towards the end of August 2009, unbeknownst to him, Geoffrey offered stellar waiting service to the general manager of Sankara, Nairobi, who offered him a job on the spot.

“I later shared with the hotel’s general manager my passion for wine,” he says. In 2010, just six months into his new job, the food and beverage manager, Derrick Ouma, offered Geoffrey the opportunity to work at the hotel wine cellar to learn all that he could about wine.

OPPORTUNITY TO TRAVEL

“Derrick is one of the people who recommended that I be given an opportunity to travel to South Africa to study more about wine.”

During staff briefings, he would use any opportunity he had to teach his colleagues about wine from his research. He would even offer his colleagues a gift if they sold the wine that he taught them about that day. He realised that he learned more when he taught others.

“I would also explain the wines to the guests based on what I had read and they came to like it.”

Soon, some guests would specifically ask to be served by Geoffrey. In 2012, he travelled to South Africa to formally learn about wine. He spent a month visiting over 300 wineries across South Africa under the auspices of South Africa’s legendary father-son duo, Georgio Dalla Cia and George Dalla Cia of Dalla Cia Wines.

In September 2013, he felt it was time to move on to new opportunities, and joined one of Kenya’s prestigious private clubs; Capital Club East Africa, as a senior bartender and acting-head sommelier. Thereafter, he went to work at The Wine Shop in Nairobi, as a head sommelier and as head of wine sales and marketing. He worked here for a year.

In 2015, he set up his own business, Sommelier’s Palate, a company that offers training on wine to hotels, restaurants and wine enthusiasts.

“There was a huge gap in the market and I believed that I had something to offer.”

On an average day, Geoffrey, a single parent, wakes up at 4am and spends an hour reading up on wine from his many books. At 5.30am, he wakes up his two children and gets them ready for school. He drops them off at school, and at 7.30am, begins to organise his client meeting schedule and attends meetings that run throughout the day with prospective and current clients, scheduling and organising events.

He then picks his children from school in the evening, and between then to 9pm, he dedicates his time to them, helping them with homework and preparing their dinner.

After putting them to bed, he spends an hour to reflect on his day – his achievements and challenges and explores new ways to work better.

How lucrative is it being a sommelier in this market?

It’s profitable to expats, but Kenya has a huge potential because the hospitality industry is growing rapidly. It is lucrative, you can plan events around wine, you can serve as an intermediary for a hotel or restaurant as well as act wine merchant, someone who distributes wines.

You can also act as a sales person for a wine merchant or even become a wine educator.

Where can one study this craft?

It is best to start in a restaurant so that you learn not just about wine, but also about food and how to pair wine with different foods. The other alternative is to take an online course, such as the one offered by Wines of South Africa.

What does it take to be a sommelier?

You have to be confident. You also have to have the product knowledge, because with wine, it is either you know the product or you don’t. You can’t guess. Thirdly, taste a lot of wine.

Don’t drink; there is a difference between drinking and tasting wine. Tasting wine requires you to analyse the drink, you consume 30ml of it and let your taste buds help you define its taste.

Look at the wine, take in the aroma. The best way to learn is to taste two different types of wine at a time. Pour 30ml of each, swirl them, smell them, taste, and then analyse.

What challenges do you face running Sommelier’s Palate?

People don’t want to pay the value of my services, and many prefer to pick expat sommeliers. There is an industry perception that African sommeliers have inferior skills, which isn’t true. Restaurant and hotel management should help employees passionate about wine pursue their dream in the field.

Who do you look up to?

Abraham Harold, a South African - he grows Cinsaut and Pinot noir and created the Pinotage wine that we enjoy today. They harvested their first grapes in 1929, but it was only in 1961 that they created the first Pinotage for consumption.

They spent 32 years perfecting the wine, pouring away what they didn’t like and starting all over again to make the perfect variety. It is now South Africa’s most dominant grape.

What is the potential of wine as a Kenyan export and a product of local consumption?

Kenya isn’t considered a wine-producing country, but we do have people running wineries producing wine. It is unfair to compare Kenya to, say, Italy, who have been making wine for centuries.

I would like to congratulate Leleshwa wines - I was there a few weeks ago and tasted their entire range, and I respect Emma, the wine maker, because she has been very consistent in perfecting her skill. We are a young wine-making country; we just started making it 15 years ago, and now you can buy Kenyan wine from local supermarkets and bars.

Is boxed wine good wine?

Most of this wine is industrially processed; it is not handpicked like your bottled wine. Boxed wines tend to be harvested by tractors which collect everything from the field, including some bad berries which are mixed in the winery, a factor that affects the taste and the richness of wine. It really isn’t the best wine.

When buying, what should one look for?

Buy a wine that is at least three-five years old. For instance, we are in 2016, so buy a bottle dated 2013 and older. If you want to learn more about wine, you need to start looking at different grape varieties such as Shiraz, Merlot, and Cabernet Sauvignon. Grapes are like mangoes; a mango grown in Machakos and one grown in Kilifi taste different. There are more than 10,000 grape varieties in the world; there is a lot to choose from. It’s a journey – still is for me.

What was your 2012 experience like, visiting over 300 vineyards in South Africa?

That was the best thing that happened to me. That was my first time to taste wine from a barrel. And meeting high-end wine makers and smaller scale wine makers and seeing their passion for wine and ready to share that. I really thank God that I was able to do it. If I had lots of money, I would go there every year for the grape harvest between February to April. I intend to go there next year.

You say that you would like to own a vineyard in Turkana. Would you care to share more on this?

I travelled to Turkana, and I was amazed. There was a vineyard just off the lake. I tasted their wine, and I knew then that the soil around the lake was great. During the night it is cool, and the breeze brings moisture to the grapes. There are 10-15 grape varieties that would thrive in Turkana. That is my long-term plan. For now, I am growing some grapes in my farm in Uthiru in a nursery.

How does it feel being Africa’s representative in a global competition?

I am really happy that I am going to represent Kenya and Africa at large. It is a big deal. I don’t take it lightly.

I have to show the world that Africa Sommeliers are just as great as their global counterparts. It’s exciting, and there is lots of pressure at the same time. I also believe that this will bring some respect to African sommeliers in the wine business.