Future Wine Ambassadors
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‘Give a man a fish and you feed him for a day. Teach a man to fish and you feed him for a lifetime.’
Lao Tzu
You’ll encounter them everywhere – from award-winning restaurants in the winelands to cutting-edge city eateries, world-class hotels to luxurious game lodges in the bushveld. Enthusiastic and entertaining, knowledgeable and passionate, they all have one thing in common – a desire to offer you five-star service. These are the previously disadvantaged people who’ve completed one of Let’s Sell Lobster’s unique training programmes.
The Let's Sell Lobster company specialises in training the staff of Africa's finest hotels, game lodges and restaurants. They inspire and empower staff from junior to senior level in service, food, wine, housekeeping and reception, providing a holistic approach to the art of 5-star service.
In 2005, the Umdiliya (meaning grapes in Xhosa) programme started in Franschhoek. It came about because of a perceived need for South African service standards to improve and a desire to enable socio-economic development “Twenty people were chosen from the local community and trained up in various skills and five-star service. Nineteen of them are still successfully employed in various establishments in the valley,” says Paul Rowett, a director, of the first of these ongoing SETA-accredited two-month courses.
The previously disadvantaged people selected to be trained as wine stewards as part of the Fundi programme will complete the five-day advanced wine course. A novel approach uses animal analogies to teach an understanding of wine. Cabernet Sauvignon, which has the biggest structure, heaviest mouthfeel and longest ageing potential, is likened to the elephant; and Shiraz, to the black rhino – big, bold, can be aggressive when young, with its sharp horns representing the wine’s spiciness. A complex wine, Pinot Noir’s counterpart is the hippo – an animal which thinks it’s a fish, with a heavy structure on land but light and buoyant in water. Cap Classique is like the giraffe – tall, elegant, the queen of the bush, who looks down her long neck at other wines. White wines are represented by birds – Chardonnay is matched to the African fish eagle, which likes to rest in trees, much as most Chardonnays are matured in oak barrels. Students are trained to not only understand wine but to sell, present and serve it in a
skilled way.
At WOSA we are obsessed about raising customer service levels in South Africa. To show our commitment, and as a service to you, we have added the getclosure! Committed to Excellent Service to our site. getclosure! is an independent online complaints management and customer affairs portal that offers a discreet and independent complaints service. Click on the logo now to complain about, or compliment, service you have recently received.
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