Why sommeliers hate wine-app reliance
Diners who dismiss help of live experts making big mistake
A short time after the Chicago restaurantMaple & Ash opened late last year, sommelier-in-residence Scott Tyree got the coldest shoulder of his career from a customer. According to Tyree’s recounting of the incident on Facebook, it went like this:
Tyree: “Good evening, sir. I understand you are interested in red Burgundy this evening. May I be of any assistance with the list?”
Guest: “No, I just photographed your Burgundy page onmy Vivino app. I don’t need your recommendations. The app will tell me all I need to know.”
Tyree (in his head): “While you’re at it, sir, please ask your app to retrieve the wine fromthe cellar, place stemware on your table, and open and serve the wine. Enjoy your dinner.”
OK, everybody just calm down. First of all, Tyree says, the customerwas not a jerk. Hewas neither uninformed about wine, nor a cheapskate. Tyreewas put off by the exchange— understandably so— but he was more confused as to why someonewould choose software over human interaction. What eventually sent him to social mediawas his curiosity about other sommeliers’ experience.
“I just find it really interesting that peoplewould rather consult an app than talk,” Tyree says. “It just seems like another symptom in the technological takeover of theworld.”
— Scott
Tyree, sommelier
His Facebook post hit a nerve, sparking a lively conversation among other wine industry types and restaurantgoers alike.
Friends, friends, friends. Have a seat. Listen. Wine is among the most app-able commodities in theworld. Fewthings are studied, scrutinized and debated with such fervor. Enology overflows with data, in degrees minuscule enough to fill a lifetime of serious study. At the same time, what could be more human and civilized than dining with wine? It is all about people in the presence of other people. This iswhy some restaurants have a “no cellphones” policy. This is why you put on nice shoes and comb your hair.
I could not imagine consulting a software program when I have access to an actual human expert, not only on wine but specifically on the wines and cuisine of the very restaurant I amsitting in. Notice that I didn’t stop at “actual human.” The nextword was “expert.” Itwould seem that a person who is into wine enough to download awine app— and to dine at a restaurant with a serious wine program, such asMaple& Ash— would understand the value in trusting thewine staff.
A fine-dining wine staff knows the wines in the cellar, knows the food coming out of the kitchen and knows howthose two things go together best. It is literally their job— their profession— to knowthese things. What that diner did is the equivalent of traveling to a foreign country with a bilingual guide and refusing to ask her to translate the road signs, instead photographing them with a phone and letting an app tell him what they say.
Dining in restaurants is a human, social experience. It’swhy people rarely go to restaurants alone. It’swhy most of the tables are out in the open. It’s why someone says “welcome” when you arrive. This is not to say that a wine app can never be useful in a restaurant. But make it an extra thing, and not the thing itself. Use it to enhance, not replace.
In an equally ridiculous app incident a couple of weeks after the first one, a customer said to Tyree, “Thank you for your recommendation, but Vivino disagrees with you. We’ll take the malbec instead of the Bordeaux.”
I asked Tyree if he had thoughts on what this app-reliancewas all about, and he didn’t. But I do. It’s about control, and having all of the answers in your hand. Myadvice to you in a fine-dining situation? Give up the control. Let the professionals do what they do best. Control what you want to pay, and make your preferences and prejudices known. Beyond that, trust the people whowork in the restaurant. It doesn’t require a full surrender. But at least let them help you. At least look them in the eye and talk to them.
Technology can be great. It improves and sometimes saves lives. It educates and entertains. (On that last point I highly recommend a cat-riding-a-vacuum video that I came across and watched. Twice.) But let’s not replace human expertise with algorithms. If you had teeth issues, would you trust theword of your dentist over a recommendation on your phone? Giving up some control and trusting an expert does not make youweak. It only makes you more human.
Maple& Ashwas hopping the night of the first app debacle, when the customer said to Tyree, “I don’t need your recommendations. The app will tellme all I need to know.” Frustrated by the brushoff, Tyree assigned the table to an associate andwent on to answer questions at other tables. Had it been slower, Tyree says, he might have returned to get into that customer’s mind and find out whatwas behind his phone devotion.
“I wish Iwould have been able to have a conversation with him about it,” Tyree says in complete sincerity.
In the e-parlance of the day, I say: “a conversation with him”— LOL! ;)
“I just find it really interesting that people would rather consult an app than talk.”