Mr. Sunny Hodge - UK - Wine judge, Writer, & Consultant (Interview No. 199)

Name: Mr. Sunny Hodge

Nationality: UK citizen –

The Cynic's Guide to Wine (New release) at click (Highly Recommended)

Wine bar - aspen & meursault - click

Wine bar - Diogenes the Dog - click

Prerequisite:

Please, tell us a little bit about your first encounter with wine & the wine industry. Did you have any particular mentors?

My first real encounter with wine was working in Nando's whilst studying Engineering at University, I think it's better we divert from the days of drinking the stuff in large amounts, to the early days of learning and really engaging with wine. Phil Crozier of Gaucho restaurants (at the time) was the first person who helped in making wine make any sense at all. Gaucho as a whole had an incredible training academy, and back then Phil headed their wine program. He was passionate, and knowledgeable, an artful storyteller and wore some pretty impressive shirts. Though I served and drank wine before meeting him, he was the first to spark that interest in wanting to know more, and not just with me, I've lost count of his wine acolytes whom he has influenced over the years. One of the first wine sessions we did with him was looking at what makes up a grape and how this contributed to wine, there were sugar Vs acid graphs and everything, my engineering brain loved it and since then I've developed the session somewhat to run it as a tasting format for guests at the bar and even titled one of the chapters in the book "The Anatomy of a Grape" in homage to this first training session with Phil.

What specific traits or skills should a Sommelier(e) possess for professional performance and is there any person with those qualities you especially admire within the wine industry?

Honesty, humbleness, and the need to give back to those around you. All the other skills can be studied with time. Being a sommelier is as academic a role in hospitality as you're ever going to find. It involves skill, knowledge, storytelling, years of studying and you become somewhat of a finely tuned expert in your craft. You are seen by guests and fellow co-workers in a very different light compared with other managers and team members and sometimes knowing that you know stuff that others don't in a small professional work environment can get to one's head. I've seen it before, and when hiring soms for the bars, I always look for those three traits and place them far higher than pre-existing wine knowledge or experience.

What would be your advice to a young Sommelier(e)? How to find a good position at home or abroad? Any further tips?

Ask about a company's training program/structures at every interview. If you're starting off in the industry, knowledge is power in this game. Working for a fancy restaurant may look great on your CV, but if you've spent 9 months polishing glasses and having to learn the list at home, then you're far better off in an environment that puts time into developing your knowledge and skill development.

Active:

When a customer asks for advice on selecting wine what, in your opinion, would be the best approach?

Assume they know nothing about wine, and then build up from there. I steer clear of subjectivity and stick to what we can determine, it's an active investigation - every time! A good example would be a guest who mentions they only drink French or Italian wines, wine is a minefield and these sorts of statements are your guests trying to apply some sense to what can be a quite mystical subject. I would personally discard this requisite and filter down till I find the perfect wine, ie. light or full-bodied, fruit-forward or oaky, keep going till you find something out of the norm that I'm sure they'll love. And most importantly, help them understand why they like it so much so they can articulate it for next time!

What is your philosophy about glasses? Are you working with well-known brands or are you considering new brands as well?  How do you decide?

Your glassware is a reflection of your environment and establishment. My wine bars have incredibly high attention to detail, and wine service is quite meticulous, but we are a fast-paced environment in casual neighbourhood locations - our glassware perfectly reflects this. We use Spiegelau glassware because they look gorgeous, they fit the setting and style of the environment yet in a high volume, by the glass-driven setting, we go through a lot of glassware and sturdiness is key to the business. The fast-paced nature of what we do could not support more delicate glassware, and we have to weigh up the pros and cons for the entirety of the feel Vs economics of the business.

What advice would you give people on pairing wine with food?

People's personal likes and dislikes are purely subjective to that individual, follow the basic rules, and don't get too caught up in the details of it. My book is heavily science-based and goes into detail on flavours and their neurological perception of them, including genetic and learnt preferences. The more I study about this, the less faith I put into pairings. The basic rules of matching the weight, acidities, and sugar levels of wine and food are solid pairing rules to abide by to ensure you're not ruining one or the other - however, whether your guest will truly appreciate the intricate nuances of your pairing in great detail is another thing. An experiment I would love to run would be on pairings and looking at the stats of how many guests noted an elevated dining experience from pairings when their sommelier has explained it to them versus when they're not told why they should enjoy the pairing, that would be fun!

Should a Sommelier(e) taste the guest’s wine?

It depends on how risky you feel the wine may be. A young wine that's produced in large volumes for example I would assume would be low risk, if stored correctly, I'd smell check these before serving and would feel this would be enough. A far older wine, with a softer or dried cork, and showing other risky signs I'd be sure to taste as a precaution.

Wine list:

What are the key ingredients for creating a wine list for a restaurant and what is your opinion on pricing wine in restaurants, do you have tips on how to determine markups?

Both my bars have very specific concepts (off-the-beaten path and natural wines) so concept aside I'd broadly say value should lead the decision-making process, then know your team, and finally know your guests. One's team is often forgotten when making wine list decisions, yet they're a key factor in delivering your vision and inversely moving parts of the list you had less faith in. Only by knowing your team well, will you be able to build a truly engaging and even flowing list that works whether you're there or not. I'm not the most financially driven individual, my key driver is always experience. I have a broad margin structure for our own imports and the suppliers we use, and if a wine moves too quickly and it starts dominating sales, I see this as detracting from the experience of my soms and their guests, it's boring, and I'd be happy to mark it up a bit to slow down sales - and inversely for slow-moving wines.

How do you manage to stay on top of the changes in the wine industry?

My life is now this industry, I am thoroughly plugged in and am fortunate to have a great network of different-minded professionals across all spectrums of the industry. I feel that the idea of 'staying on top of things' seems like a chore, I chose to work in this industry because I want to learn, grow and in turn help develop the industry so keeping my finger on the pulse of wine changes is a part if the time I invest in myself on a daily basis, and if I need a sounding board, I have a solid network to bounce ideas off.

How would a new vineyard get their wine noticed and what is the best way for producers to improve their chances of being listed?

Finding a distributor who shares your ethos and works with venues that you want to see your wines listed is sadly key. In an ideal world, direct imports and building those direct relationships would be the dream, but it's not always feasible for financial, time, or space reasons. We directly import most of our list, but we structured the business to do this from the offset, and additionally work as a distributor (with a select few bars, shops and restaurants) also to assist in cash flow on that model. Your average bar/restaurant wouldn't have the means to purchase 5 pallets of wine, nor store it, nor want to sort out the nitty gritty of the import. Because of that, a solid supplier is key!

Favourite pick:

If you were a wine, which variety would you be, and why?

I'd be a Saperavi. Hope you don't mind me geeking out on this. Saperavi has commonly been thought and taught to be a Teinturier variety, sometimes and most commonly, it is not. The grape has a high propensity to mutate. In some Saperavi plots mature grapes maintain clear flesh, in others, the anthocyanin content in the skins bleed back into the flesh, and in rare cases, the flesh is completely dark. Local (Georgian) Oenologist Dr Mariam Khomasuridze recently conducted tests on the flesh of the grape and detected no pigmented anthocyanins. I am a saperavi, restless and forever on the cusp of a revelation.  

Which top 3 types of wine (your faves would we find in your home wine collection and what’s your desert island wine?

I must confess that I am the worst at these sorts of questions, so sadly must rule out the desert island wine - I opt for drinking water. What I love most in wine is to try something completely new and learn about it. Stylistically I personally tend towards lower intervention wines, I'm a huge advocate for the movement and the science shows good reasons for this. I am also a sucker for an oxidative Jura-esque style wine - my current fave is supplied by Carla at Vinos Latinos; Masintin a Semillon / Moscatel blend from Diego Urra Gosselin farming out of Itata Valley in Chile, it's Jura without the silly price points.

Any interesting suggestions for magazines or online platforms?

I'm more of a book guy and only read bits online via research and academic portals, which is a bit sad I guess. Really fun and geeky wine reads I'd recommend are most of what Dr Jamie Goode and Simon J Woolf write, plus currently I'm engorging 'Behind the Glass' by Gus Zhu MW which is a remarkable insightful read. My suggestion for the future of wine is simply - to understand it better and don't waste time in learning assumptions [The saperavi case above is a great example of this which is even taught incorrectly in WSET]. Only by understanding the science do we have any bearing on if what we are saying is accurate! At the risk of further plugging my book, it was designed to solve this issue at the front end of wine, for soms, waiters and wine journalists etc.

Thank you

Sunny

The Cynic's Guide to Wine (New release) at click (Highly Recommended)

Looking for a Sommelier job? Feel free and check out: click

Looking for the perfect wine list? Feel free to go to the link

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