well here we are... no turning back now!
the thing about working as a sommelier on an all-inclusive luxury cruise line is that most people are not inclined to purchase additional bottles of wine. complementary wines are offered at every meal and, though they are inexpensive wines, you can choose from a variety, so if you don't like the pinot grigio, you can have the gavi or the sauvignon blanc for free. for most people, this is plenty. but this also means that the people who do buy wine pretty much only buy the most expensive wines, which come by the bottle or in packages. i've been at this three days and i've so far sold three bottles of chateau palmer margaux at $265/btl, three bottles of pichon-lalande at $250/btl, and a tuscan package including ornellaia, solaia, and guado al tasso for $450. the wine department has reached nearly $10,000 in sales in just three days. yeah, it's that kind of cruise.
working with these wines is good fun (especially when a decent commission is involved), and i was happy to find that my fellow sommeliers are just as nerdy and obsessed with random wine facts as i am. our head sommelier is from india, and is preparing to leave the position in the fall, turning it over to an extremely knowledgeable sommelier from the netherlands, who has been training to replace him over the past few months. we do have a bit of an advantage in our department as we have access to exceptional wines and spirits, good relationships with the kitchen staff, and a very generous boss. this pretty much means no eating in the crew mess (unidentifiable slop much?) and no racking up a huge tab at the crew bar, which is excellent.
well those are the fun and exciting things about the job, but they don't come free. the guests demand a very high level of service, the hours are long, and change is difficult to achieve. there is a pervasive mentality of "this is how we've been doing things for years, why would we change now" amongst guests and staff alike. so i'm learning how to play by the rules and not be the "squeaky wheel". also i have to wear a skirt with nylons and a hideous red jacket with monstrous shoulder pads for service. my whining about the skirt has gotten me nowhere, but i very firmly believe a sommelier should wear pants!
as far as the ports go, long work hours and daily safety training have kept me on the ship this week, as we've sailed to italy and corsica. tomorrow we are back in france (saint tropez) and i may actually be able to disembark for a couple hours. you have no idea how exciting this is for me.
overall it's definitely a lifestyle that takes some getting used to, but getting to see these lovely ports and working with some world class wines is keeping me quite happy. we'll see what the future holds.
