Hugh Wilkins is sitting in sparkling Queensland sunshine remembering the oak beams, log fire and stone walls of his old English pub, The Fox and Goose.
And if he should weep a little into his South Australian chardonnay, it is because he knows there is little chance of finding a public house like it in his adopted country, which now allows a pub to have as many as 100 jangling poker machines.
Hugh has been here a year teaching newcomers to the hospitality industry how to operate the sensory areas of the tongue and mouth to recognise great wine from the pretentious; how to handle the situation when a diner sends a bottle back; and how to recommend wine by the glass to accompany each course - a growing trend in Australian restaurants.
The curly-haired Englishman with the trendy spectacles withdraws his perceptive nose from a bold red to assure his future food and beverage managers at Griffith University that he knows what he is talking about. Twenty years’ learning and then teaching, followed by six years in his own pub and restaurant, gives him the right to tell his classes not to be persuaded by over-zealous wine salesmen. A good restaurant manager should not, he suggests, ignore the small, boutique wineries. ‘They can produce great wines, yet tend to be shut out because of reasons of supply and the cost of printing wine lists that must be supported by the hotel or restaurant cellar.’
Griffith University, is a collaborative partner in the Australian Centre for Wine Business and Management. It has appointed Hugh to spearhead the wine business course on the Gold Coast, an area where there are more restaurants per head of population than anywhere in Australia. ("As a drop-in Pom, Hugh Wilkins has a great appreciation of wine," reported the local newspaper when he arrived.)
The last to brag about the powerful sensitivity of his nose, Hugh can tell you, indignantly, that he happens to know the wholesale cost of a bottle of wine and is often "horrified" by the mark-up by some restaurants in Australia and the UK. ‘They take too large a margin out of a bottle of wine, which I don’t think is necessary.’ So when he goes out to a restaurant after a hard day’s tasting and talking, he takes his own bottle to a BYO.
‘I begin by going to a bottle shop and spending perhaps 20 minutes browsing in the red wine section before I make my choice of a wine that takes my fancy and which I can afford. I tend to almost always take a red, (unless I am going to a seafood restaurant and will be having a delicate fish like lobster). It will be a robust, straight shiraz, or a dry cabernet sauvignon.
‘Australian reds have some great depths of character; Australian whites can be excellent, but some of the varieties seem to have suffered by the great growth of chardonnay. There are rieslings that are fabulous and others quite horrifying. Nevertheless Australian wines have got a phenomenal hold in the UK market; as have wines from Chile, South Africa and South America, often to the exclusion of Old Country wines from France, which have lost ground. The bottle of Australian wine sold in UK off-licences is often cheaper than it is at home,’ he reports. ‘But what some London restaurants charge for it is frightening.’
While some wine experts are born with a great palate, others have arrived at their expertise by learning how to awaken what they have and to understand it. (‘Jilly Cooper, the English author, has an astronomic palate. I have seen her do a blind tasting of many bottles of wine and she can actually name the vineyard and say the grapes came from a shade-facing area. And she is right!’)
He has this advice for diners who might be afraid of wine waiters: don’t be embarrassed about having to send back a bottle of wine that you believe it is not up to standard, "providing you have the experience to say the wine is not as good as it should be." ‘But you must never send back a bottle just because you don’t like it.’ His students, who spend a semester in the university training restaurant as waiters, learn how to handle such "difficult situations", as well as advising the customer on what wine they believe is right for the food they order.
Hugh says: ‘I still believe there is room in some colder parts of Australia for the English-style pub, with its character, its cosiness and intimacy. The English pub industry is fabulous.’
At the same time he worries about the waste of money on poker machines in Australia. ‘We have had what we called "fruit machines" in England for many years; but only perhaps one or two in a pub. They are not allowed to take over.’
