Pretentious? Moi?

06 June 2003 By db staff writer

“standfirst”>Thankfully not. Patrick Schmitt feared an intimidating meeting with the Ruinart Sommelier of the year, but found Loic Maillet to be laid back, laisser-faire and even likeable

IF YOU were told someone was both from Paris and an awardwinning sommelier you probably wouldn’t be dying to meet them.  He (rather than she) you might expect to be angular and aloof, certainly serious and, of course, devoted to all things French to the exclusion of anything from anywhere else.

A sense of superiority would seep from every pore and the ill-informed or crass would be sentenced to a withering glare so effective they’d turn and run.  You might even be able to picture the pained expression that  would creep across such an expert’s face at the merest mention of Barossa.

Whisper single variety, can you see him seethe? Now meet Loic Maillet, Ruinart Sommelier of the year 2003 winner, Frenchman and wine nut.  This man (and it’s only his sex that concurs with the above stereotype) is young, quite cool, even laid back, while being mild and modest, as well as, and most importantly, extremely open minded.

His training may have been almost solely in his homeland’s wines and he is equipped with a suitably thick French accent, but Loic is just as passionate about the New World as he is about the Old.

His past is impressive. Accolades include not just being rewarded by Ruinart, but also, last year, becoming both Torres quiz and nose master.  Careerwise he was trainee sommelier at the Restaurant Opera in the Paris Intercontinental before hitting British shores with a post at Le Manoir aux Quatre Saisons.

This was followed by a position at Harvey Nichols Fifth Floor restaurant ("It was hard for me to be 20 years old and in a village in the countryside"), then Le Pont de la Tour and finally, his current concern, Aurora at the Great Eastern Hotel, where he’s head sommelier.

He’s also far from homesick. "I don’t think I will move back to Paris," he ponders. "It’s difficult to say. I’ve been here [in the UK] eight years and I don’t want to spend all my life in England, but then I only ever planned to come here for six months."

Of course his main reason for staying is his position at Aurora, which he touchingly treats more as a project than a daily grind.  "I’m happy here and I like it from a wine point of view as I think my job is not finished – there are still things to do," he says.

 "We still haven’t got a star Michelin and I know we’ve got a good chef.  The food is getting better and so is the wine list. And the thing is, as well, you don’t build a cellar in six months. It takes some time, not just in terms of references but also there are some wines I love but are difficult to sell."

Maillet acknowledges how lucky he is with the set up at Aurora, commenting it’s "not only top Burgundies for businessmen," – a remark made without any sense of disapproval for either Burgundy or business, but rather relief and gratitude for the chance to experiment with wine.

His approach, however, remains faultlessly professional. For instance, Maillet is quite clear on the role of the sommelier. 

 "You must make sure the wine list is good but also that those studying it understand all the little things that can enhance the wine experience, such as the choice of glasses, the temperature, whether the wine should or shouldn’t be decanted.

Sometimes, for instance, a perfectly ripe Bordeaux should not be decanted. And," he adds, "it is important the customer has someone to talk to." 

Maillet stresses this last point because "when you have so many choices – we carry 600 wines – it would be quite boring if you’re sitting with someone and they read the wine list for half an hour trying to find what they want."

And certainly Maillet, for all his expertise, admits to quickly scanning wine lists himself, "because a restaurant is about going out".  But he is also fully aware that he’s there to guide the customer and not to enforce his own taste or opinions.

 "I might encourage them to ask questions to help them with what they are looking for," he says. "I try and match the food and wine but I also try and match the  wine to the guest – there are some people who like a style of wine regardless of what they are eating."

Furthermore, he adds, "You must try and understand your customers and give them what they actually want, not just what you think goes with the food because that can be quite subjective. There is often not a perfect match.

You can only strive to go near the perfect match between the wine, the food and the customer – and the occasion."  However, all these remarks do beg the question: how much  influence do sommeliers really have? Well, Maillet believes their role is certainly powerful in terms of helping people decide on a particular wine or at least move in the right direction.

As he says: "The customer is sitting down, they are here to enjoy themselves, they are here to have a bottle of wine and it is up to you to actually recommend them something.   It is worth more than any advertising campaign in a way because they might look at something, for instance, on German wine and think ‘yes fine, but I’m still going to buy some Burgundy or some Sauvignon Blanc from New Zealand,’ and in that situation you should talk to them and explain the style and give them something they’ve never had before, and there is a chance they will remember it and go for it next time."

He also cites a different situation – one where a table of people starts with one particular bottle of wine and then switches to something else.  "So", as Maillet comments, "they might start with something they know. For instance, they might choose a Malbec from Argentina and you might tell them about a Saint Laurent from Austria, which is about the same price and quality. It’s just an example."

Nevertheless, French wines still dominate the on-trade. This, one would expect at a French restaurant like Aurora, but in other places Maillet believes it has much to do with the past. "I think it’s historical.

I love everywhere in terms of wine regions because I believe everywhere is making good wines. However, France is the country where you have the most diversity and where you have all styles of wines and wines, especially at the top end, that you can really trust because they have pedigree.

And there is still a big demand," he concludes. "But", says Maillet on a more personal note, "being French I like to recommend a scope. You should show that you can be open-minded and I don’t see why I should only be recommending French wines."

In fact, he even admits, unusually perhaps for a sommelier, "It’s nice to let people choose what they want to drink."  So, how does one become Sommelier of the Year? Is it arbitrary or accurately examined?

Practical or paper-based? Well, it’s a bit like the Krypton Factor (without the assault course) in that each drinks expert is put through a challenging mix of hands-on exercises as well as knowledge testing and for each section they are awarded a series of points. And Maillet, quite simply, got the highest score on the day.

One of the ordeals included choosing wine for a group of six people from any country other than France or Australia. Maillet selected Italy.  "I tried to offer a range, not just wines from the Piemonte and not crazy prices, and I talked through the food and wine pairing."

The contestants were also subjected to a blind tasting of spirits – "I found them all, I was lucky," Maillet recalls with his typical modesty.  "And then we had to spot errors on a wine list," he continues.

"In the same way as if you are a sommelier in a restaurant, you must be constantly checking the wine list to see that there are no spelling mistakes. For example, one that is put in the wrong area or colour or the wrong cru classé. We had it happen once – we had a Léoville-Poyferré as a 5ème Cru and the owner came in and said, ‘oh by the way’ …"

The sommeliers had to do the same careful checking with cigars. "Some were not the ring gauge they should have been so we had to correct the mistake," says Maillet. Then as well as a cigar and wine pairing he had to handle a particularly tricky scenario.

As he describes: "It was a gentleman celebrating his 60th birthday, his son was 35 and his daughter 25. His daughter had never smoked a cigar before but wanted to have one today.  His son was an occasional smoker and the father was an aficionado, so it was about presenting the box and talking through the cigars.

It was the perfect case of having three people with very different ideas about cigars." This required Maillet to "keep it simple, tell them a little story about cigars but without being patronising – it’s very easy to sound patronising."

He was also required to pour a magnum of Ruinart without pausing while ensuring every glass was exactly equal. For your interest it filled 16.  And, as Maillet remarks, this test wasn’t just about accuracy, but also the way the wine is presented.

"It is something a bit special and just like a birthday gift.  You wouldn’t just say ‘There you go and, oh, happy birthday,’" he says, shrugging his shoulders and lowering his voice.  And overall it seems pretty clear that Maillet scored so highly not just because he’s conscientious but also because he has an easy manner about him, alongside a confidence-inspiring approach to his work.

He’s also not out to show off his extensive knowledge or expect everyone to share his opinions. As he comments on his job at Aurora, just as I’m leaving the quiet confines of this Conran outlet first thing in the morning: "I really don’t feel obliged to change the customer’s first choice, but sometimes I will comment on a wine which will potentially really clash with the meal.

But you must always be as diplomatic as possible because it can be very patronising, for instance, to say something like ‘Do you realise you’ve got some white wine and you’ve got some beef?’ Sometimes people only drink white and they still want to have beef."

And that really says it all about Maillet. He may have a passion for wine, a highly trained palate and an immense knowledge, but he is refreshingly unpretentious.