Encourage all hospitality staff to improve wine knowledge, industry told

Restaurant and bar operators should encourage their British staff to take up sommelier as a career to balance the level of foreign sommeliers in the hospitality industry.

That’s the view of Roy Ackerman CBE of the Wine Guild and Academy of Food and Wine, who told BigHospitality British businesses could do more to improve their staff’s knowledge of wine.

“We should spread the view that everyone in the industry, even if they’re not a sommelier, should have some knowledge of wine. That’s very important.

“It’s all about training and going back to basics so people know the product, can recommend it, talk about it and know how to serve it.”

He added that Britons considering sommeliery have an advantage over their European cousins as wine lists are more diverse in the UK.