GMG, INC. JULY 12, 2006 33

Mahdavian says, consider wine a critical element

is: “What if I buy a $75 bottle of wine and I donʼt

ingredients, but also on etiquette and customer

TOAST WITH DANIELNothing ruins an amazing meal faster than

a bad wine, or a poorly matched one, says Daniel Mahdavian, a food, wine

and beverage consultant and a certifi ed som-melier. “Thereʼs something very magical about pairing food, food ingredients, and individual sauces...with the right wine, at the right tempera-ture, in the right glass,” he says. “Itʼs almost like a marriage.”

Choosing wine that truly enhances a meal, Mahdavian says, depends not on whether the meal is meat or fi sh, but on how it is prepared, what types of sauces accompany it, how gamey the meat, how strong the fi sh, or whether it is oily or dry. For every meal, a range of tastes and possibilities, at various price points, could be effective. The ultimate choice depends on the customerʼs individual tastes and preferences and his wallet.

Therein, Mahdavian believes, lies a prime op-portunity for restaurants, bars and hotels to im-prove their profi t margins – an opportunity that often goes unrealized.

Just as a great wine can make the meal, Mahda-vian knows, a disappointing one can prove a real mood-killer. A voluminous wine menu can over-whelm customers hoping to please their dates or guests – and lead to a stressful game of guess-to-impress. Hapless customers also sometimes have their problems compounded when a server, sommelier, or chef is none-the-wiser -- and sug-gests a poor match, a pricier one, or, both.

Poor choices and poor advice lead to poor din-ing experiences, which Mahdavian believes, ul-timately lead to poor profi ts for a restaurant, bar or club.

A certifi ed sommelier, Mahdavian has worked in the local restaurant industry since the 1980s. He has served as wine and spirits director for Restaurant Asia Nora, Mendocino Grille, and the Saint-Regis and Ritz-Carlton hotels and de-veloped promotional opportunities for national marketing campaigns.

Last May, Mahdavian and his wife, Melanie Corcoran, an MBA graduate from the University of Southern California with previous experience in the wine industry, joined a growing niche within the hospitality industry, and started Refuel Consultants, LLC, a Washington D.C.-based res-taurant and hospitality consulting company, that focuses on opening restaurants, bars and clubs, and leading them to operational excellence, in large part by paying special attention to manage-ment of their wine and beverage programs.

In other words, the pair says, Refuel helps businesses focus on enlarging their profi t margins by helping them better manage their inventory of “liquid assets,” meaning: wine, spirits, beer, cof-fee, tea, water and olive oil.

Refuel also helps manage restaurant openings from start to fi nish, collaborating with clients in activities ranging from fi nding an ideal location for a bar, restaurant or club, to creating leases, to planning and managing budgets, to creating a food and beverage program, to developing menus in coordination with staffs, to building a brand strategy, to managing media relations, to recruiting staff.

Recent projects have included the opening of Lima Restaurant and Lounge in downtown D.C., restructuring of the wine and beverage program and staff training at Belga Café on Capitol Hill.

Currently, Refuel is leading two “chic” new projects in the Dupont and Downtown areas and the creation, design and buildout of VinU wine-

bar and shop slated to open in Annapolis, MD in 2007.

Part of the package is providing clients out-sourced services typically performed by an in-house sommelier.

A sommelier is a trained and knowledgeable wine professional, usually seen as specialized staff in fi ne restaurants, who specializes in wine. Typically, a sommelierʼs principal work concerns wine procurement, storage, and wine cellar rota-tion.

Sommeliers are also responsible for the de-velopment of wine lists and the delivery of wine service and training for restaurant staff. Somme-liers work together with chefs and their culinary teams to pair and suggest wines that will best complement each food menu item.

An in-house professional sommelier also works on the restaurant fl oor, advising restaurant patrons directly on wine choices for their meal.

Professional sommeliers are ethically and duty-bound to work within the taste preference and budget of the patron. Mahdavian himself re-calls convincing Michael Jordan to buy an $85 bottle of Iron Horse over a $387 bottle of Opus one evening. The basketball star was surprised.

“He looked at me like I was crazy – like: ʻWhat are you doing?ʼ....But that night, he ended up having eight of those bottles of wine because of the experience.”

Itʼs all about the experience, says Mahdavian. There is no “right” answer, only wrong ones.

“Drinking wine is a very personal experience,” Mahdavian says. “The most important thing that I have trained staff at restaurants to do is to ask: ʻWhat do you like to drink? ̓ understanding a.) what does the guest like to drink, whether itʼs a grape, whether itʼs a Bordeaux, or a Cabernet or Sirah, and b.) then understanding what they want to spend, looking at a wine list.”

The “right” answer effectively understand and translates the taste a patron seeks, matches the individualʼs taste and the ingredients of the meal, has matured, and is drawn at temperature at the right time – which sometimes proves to be a sci-ence in itself.

Sometimes, Mahdavian says, he has served pinot noirs chilled at a 65 degrees temperature, “because it feels nicer, it goes down fresher.”

Wine and beverage consultants like Refuel ed-ucate owners and staff in purchasing procedures and cost-cutting measures, teaching them how to manage resources and relationships with vendors -- and, of course, how to select wines.

“People are spending more money on better wines today than they were 10 or 15 years, ago,” says Mahdavian. Information is readily available on the internet for self-education, and especially in the D.C. area, wine-related events, such as wine tastings and wine dinners, abound.

As a result, “People are so much better edu-cated, expectations are higher, people want qual-ity,” Mahdavian says. “...They are more able to differentiate between styles and classes of wine. Even though they might spend an average of $75 to $80 on wine in a restaurant, they want it to be great bang for their buck.”

Itʼs not just high-end restaurants that are in-vesting in wine programs, buying the proper glassware, educating staff, and buying great quality wines from different parts of the world, says Corcoran.

Pasta Mia, a budget-friendly Adams-Morgan neighborhood restaurant, has an “unbelievable selection of moderately-priced chiantis and re-serves,” says Corcoran.

“They do a great job with what theyʼve got. They keep it small and focused.”

D.C.ʼs international fl avor is helping restau-rants see the difference brought by an excellent

wine program. South Americans and Europeans, who enjoyed wine as part of their upbringing, Mahdavian says, consider wine a critical element of the meal.

Dual income families with higher income levels than yesteryear, are dining out frequently too.

“Women,” Corcoran points out, “are the larg-est purchasers of wine in general.”

And as a result, she says, they are now having an effect on which wines restaurants are carrying and how they are serving them.

“We always try to push a large wine-by-the glass program,” says Corcoran. Lima Restaurant, for instance, offers 35 wines by the glass.

The thinking for many women, Corcoran says, is: “What if I buy a $75 bottle of wine and I donʼt like it?...But I can have one glass at $12 a glass or the Sauv Blanc for $7.”

Itʼs a phenomenon Mahdavian refers to as “competitive shopping.”

Educating staff to help patrons with wine se-lection requires not only instruction on the in-tricacies of effectively pairing wines with food ingredients, but also on etiquette and customer relations.

“It is important to make it a fun experience, an enjoyable experience, not to make anyone feel insecure about what they donʼt know,” says Mahdavian.

Even outsiders to the restaurant industry have noticed the consulting trend. Refuelʼs “Sommeli-er a Go-Go” program has not only produced wine tastings for restaurants such as the Oval Room and la Taberna Del Alabardero. Companies such as Price Waterhouse Coopers have hired Mahda-vian to teach new associates potentially courting heavy-hitter clients how to select and order wine with fi nesse.

By Patricia Murret