Food and Drink at Old Course Hotel

Hello and welcome back to the wine blog!

Training. Training. Training. Then practice, practice and more practice. For me that’s really the key to becoming good at anything and wine service is no different.

This week I have been doing some pretty intensive training sessions with the team here at the hotel to give them the information and skills to provide great wine and beverage service. This has ranged from the very basics of vinification, a tour through some of the world’s many wine producing regions and the grape varieties they use.

For the team this was a good exercise in gaining new information and improving on existing knowledge. For me, it was about taking my experience and knowledge and reconstructing it so as everyone could benefit, My challenge was to make the presentation accessible and interesting without using too much ‘winey’ jargon (which can be tricky sometimes). The team seemed to enjoy the session, especially as there was the promise of a tasting session the next time we meet (depending on how they all did on the quiz of course!) Now its about putting this knowledge into practice on the restaurant floor.

The wine list in the Road Hole Restaurant has had quite a few new additions over the last month. We have added some really excellent value Bordeaux, some new Chilean whites and reds and two wines from one of my favourite producers Kooyong from Mornington Peninsula, Australia.

I have been a big fan of Kooyong for some time now and I am very excited about the listings.  Mornington Peninsula is a cool climate area of Southern Australia and winemaker Sandro Mosele is quickly gaining a reputation for making the best Pinot Noir and Chardonnay in Australia. Great on their own, but even better with food, the Clonale Chardonnay in particular has been a big hit with our guests (and the staff).

Port-Philip Winery Kooyong

Hope to speak to you all soon,

Cheers,

Alan