When business talk is the main purpose of getting together, lunch in the boardroom, the executive dining room, or even the company cafeteria can make good sense. Savvy hosts know that even these venues present golden opportunities for them to make great impressions on their guests. If food is delivered to a meeting room, having real glasses, plates, silverware, and napkins available makes hosts stand out. Guests notice and appreciate not having to grapple with plastic forks, flimsy paper plates, cracking plastic cups, and barely useable napkins. If lunch is in a cafeteria, a host walks through the food lines with her guest or meets him at the cashier to pay for their food. A very nice touch is to arrange to have a company higher-up stop by the table to greet a special guest. A host would make the introduction and facilitate a brief conversation. It is one more chance to let a guest know how valued he is by the organization at all levels.
Tea
One of the best-kept secrets among business entertaining cognoscenti is afternoon tea. The ambiance of an elegant dining room overlooking a beautiful vista, with white linens on the table and a gleaming silver tea service at the ready, is hard to beat. Warm scones, crustless tea sandwiches, assorted sweets, and a reviving cup of freshly brewed tea form a welcome scenario for many a harried businessperson. Tea has all of the elements of a lavish entertainment experience, including sophisticated surroundings, superior service, and excellent food, but little of the expense.
Entertaining over tea reaps great personal branding rewards for hosts who are seen as creative, cultured, and respectful of others’ time. Afternoon tea is offered at venerable hotels and restaurants in almost all big cities, and most do a splendid job.
Drinks
Hosts can make the most of the relatively brief time they have with clients over after-hours drinks by giving a great deal of thought to the venue. A good choice is a high-end restaurant where you are known to the staff. There, you will be greeted and welcomed by name at the door and can introduce your guest to the restaurant captain. Your party can then be seated at a reserved table where complimentary cocktail accompaniments such as nuts and olives are often served and drink orders swiftly taken.
If your guest orders alcohol, you as host would follow suit but would limit your consumption to one drink. Sometimes a host may offer his guest another cocktail, but only after acknowledging the guest’s presumed time constraints. If the guest is in no hurry and the host’s schedule allows, he may suggest dinner, for both hospitality and safety reasons. Too much alcohol on an empty stomach is a recipe for disaster, a scenario with which the host does not want to be associated.
The superb service, ambience, and drinks in this setting make your guest feel honored and set the stage for a wonderful, enduring relationship.
Dinner
Dinner is the most social of business experiences. It is also the one that involves the greatest investment of time and money. In the U.S., dinner with a client usually comes after a business relationship is well underway. But there is still a great deal to learn about business partners over dinners—their histories, their personal lives, and their goals. There may be even more to learn than a host bargained for if alcohol is involved and inhibitions are lowered. Bonds are either cemented over business dinners—or permanently fractured. It makes sense to treat this opportunity with the kid gloves it deserves.
In addition to all of his other host responsibilities, at dinners, the host has one more: the ordering of wine. This is a responsibility he undertakes not only because it’s his job, but also because there are risks associated with relinquishing the wine list. Countless sales reps have had to pay exorbitant bills after having trustingly invited their guests to choose the wine. A host also orders the wine because he does not want to put undue pressure on his guest, who may be embarrassed to admit he knows little about wine.
A host should always be aware that when alcohol is involved, people often do and say things they regret or, worse, drive under the influence. A host must be keenly attuned to his guest’s condition and do all he can to allow him to save face without contributing to his intoxication. This could mean quietly working with the server to stop offering alcohol or engaging in a lengthy dessert course with lots of coffee.
Dinners are an especially important part of entertaining international guests, who consider them the perfect opportunities to evaluate potential business partners. However, among locally based associates, clients, or prospects, it’s important to remember that business dinners can cut into precious family and personal time. If you are meeting a client on her home turf and it is anything but a working dinner, it is considerate to invite her spouse as well.
Wine
At a famous French restaurant in Boston, my host, a wine collector, ordered a $300 bottle of wine per the sommelier’s suggestion. The sommelier decanted the wine and, when it was time, poured a small amount in my host’s glass for him to taste. When the sommelier asked how the wine was, my host told him he thought the wine had turned. The sommelier then tasted it and announced that my host was mistaken, that the wine was perfectly good. What ensued was a polite yet tense exchange between two individuals both highly knowledgeable on the subject of wine.
Ultimately, the sommelier took the wine back, and my host ordered another bottle at the same price point, which turned out to be fine. The experience for me was a somewhat unnerving joust between two experts. It was the first time I had witnessed the high stakes of the world of fine wine.
One of the most pleasurable aspects of business dinners and life in general is wine. Widely enjoyed, wine is still intimidating to many. Lengthy wines lists, confusing terminology, vastly divergent prices, and the not-so-vague feeling that everyone knows more about the subject can send an otherwise confident business professional straight to the beer list.
While the knowledge of wine can be passionately pursued, you needn’t become a Master of Wine to do just fine with any wine list you encounter. This is very good news, because this designation is very hard to come by. According to the Institute of Masters of Wine, there are currently only 342 people in the world who have achieved Master of Wine status.1 Of those who meet the arduous qualifications to sit for the grueling exam, only 10 percent pass. Master of Wine Jancis Robinson, who achieved the designation in 1984, said, “Master of Wine exams were for masochists when I took them . . . what is stunning is how popular this form of torture is today.”2
Take heart, no one knows all there is to know about wine. Unencumbered by this pressure, you can instead educate yourself about wine and then blissfully enjoy it to your heart’s content. You can read books, take courses, and learn about wine categories. You can attend wine tastings, download apps, and subscribe to wine publications. You can also ask to speak with a professional, as I did with Ashley Waugh, sommelier and general manager of the award-winning No. 9 Park restaurant in Boston, who kindly gave her imprimatur on the advice that follows. These steps will enable you to know as much about wine, if not more, than the vast majority. And they will ensure you are never cowed by a restaurant’s wine list again.
A WINE PRIMER
Table wine. Known as still wines, they contain only the juice of grapes. Table wines are bottled after fermentation, the process that converts the sugar of juices to alcohol. In the U.S., table wines, which are drunk with foods, are 7 percent to 14 percent alcohol. In Europe, table wine is defined as the most generic type of wine, sourcing grapes from all around the country. This type of wine cannot carry with it a varietal or region of origin on its label. Alcohol by volume (ABV) can range from 5 percent to 17 percent.
Fortified wine. This wine is strengthened with brandy or a spirit during its fermentation and is popularly consumed as an accompaniment to dessert. Fortified wines are 16 percent to 23 percent alcohol.
Aperitifs. These are flavored wines such as vermouth or Dubonnet. Aperitifs are often served before meals. Herbs, barks, roots, and other flavorings give aperitifs their distinctive flavors. Aperitifs are 15 percent to 20 percent alcohol.
Sparkling wine. Champagne, Asti Spumante, and sparkling Burgundy are in this category. Sparkling wines get their bubbles through the refermentation of still wines or the addition of artificial carbonation. Sparkling wines are 5.5 percent to 17 percent alcohol.
Most wines are described as white, red, or rosé, with the exception of fortified wines. White and red wines get their color not from the color of the grapes but from the ways in which they are made. White wines are made by simply pressing the grapes to extract the juice. Red wines are made by allowing the juices to ferment in contact with grape skins. Rosés are made by allowing juices to ferment with grape skins for a short time. Champagne, which is always a blend of wine, is categorized as brut (very dry), extra dry (less dry than brut), demi sec (slightly sweet), and sec or doux (very sweet). Popular white wines include Chardonnay, Riesling, Sauvignon Blanc, Pinot Gris, and Pinot Grigio. Popular red wines are Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot, Pinot Noir, Syrah (or Shiraz), and Zinfandel.
The Regions
Excellent wines are found throughout the world. The most well-known regions include:
France. French wines are named for the regions from which they come. Bordeaux comes from Bordeaux, Burgundy from Burgundy, and Champagne from Champagne. Other regions include the Rhône River Valley for red wines and the Loire Valley and Alsace region for white wines.
Germany. German wines come from the valleys of the Rhine and Moselle rivers. Rhine wines, which come in brown bottles, are full bodied. Moselle wines, which come in green bottles, are light and off-dry.
Italy. Italian wines may come from Tuscany, Piedmont, or Sicily. Italian red wines include Chianti, Valpolicella, and Bardolino. Italian white wines include Soave and Orvieto.
United States. American wines are named either for the grape (varietal) or the European wine they resemble. Most American wine is made in California, although today wine is produced in all 50 states.
Other well-known wine producing regions include Austria, Australia, Chile, Greece, Spain, Hungary, Switzerland, and Portugal.
Aging
White wines are usually ready to drink as soon as they are bottled. Exceptions include great wines from Bordeaux and Burgundy. Red wines require time to age properly, with the exception of Beaujolais Nouveau. Wines from Spain, Portugal, and Italy may be ready to be consumed within a year or two, but fine French wines may need 10 years. Champagne is best when consumed between 10 and 15 years of bottling.
Ordering Wine
When ordering wine at a restaurant, always ask for the server or sommelier’s suggestions, regardless of your level of knowledge about wine. They will (or should) know which wines pair best with their menu selections. This way, you will get an excellent suggestion within your price range. To do this, point directly to a wine on the list, and ask the server what she thinks of that particular wine with the meals that have been chosen. She now knows your price range. Even if she has a different suggestion, she will offer you one close in price to the one you pointed out.
Making sure the wine you are about to serve your guests is good requires you to take some steps. When the unopened bottle is presented to you at your table, first look at the label to ensure it is the wine and vintage you ordered. Once opened, look at the cork. Be sure it is neither soaked through nor crumbling, as either could indicate an issue with the wine. Once a small amount is poured for you to taste, swirl the wine with the base of the glass on the table, sniff the wine, and then taste it. If all is well, the server will pour first for your guests and then for you.
How necessary are all these steps? The chance that the wine you ordered is bad is perhaps greater than you think. It is estimated that for wines with corks, anywhere from 2 percent to 10 percent have been “corked” or tainted. This means they have been contaminated by a chemical compound known as TCA, created by fungi that infected the cork and seeped into the wine. You will know if a wine is corked by its musty or moldy smell. Wine can also be oxidized, or exposed to air, which gives it a vinegary smell. It can be “cooked,” or exposed to heat, which makes it taste like stewed prunes. It can be refermented, or could have undergone a second fermentation in the bottle, which leaves it fizzy or bubbly. The proliferation of wines in bottles with screw tops and plastic stoppers have eliminated the chances they are corked, but these bottles can still be affected by improper handling and storage. Screw tops and plastic stoppers do not imply inferior wine. Good wine is also found in boxes, although, as far as I know, boxes of wine have not yet found their way to the business dining table.
Do taste the wine, but put affectations aside. At a business dinner, don’t “chew” the wine or make audible noises or contorted facial expressions. If you suspect something is wrong with the bottle, politely ask the server, not your guest, to taste it. At a reputable establishment, the server will take the bottle back without further ado even if he disagrees with your assessment. However, you are not allowed to return a perfectly good bottle you chose on your own simply because you didn’t like the taste, especially if that bottle is half empty! But if the server suggested it, and you truly do not like it, it is perfectly acceptable to let him know. A restaurant’s primary concern is its customers’ happiness. Besides, if it’s good, the wine will not go to waste.
White wine does not need to breathe and is best served chilled. Young red wines, those under eight years old, are strong in tannic acid and need to breathe or be exposed to air for an hour or more. Mature red wines need no more than 30 minutes to breathe, and very old reds may not need to breathe at all. However, some sommeliers believe in advance decanting of some Burgundies and Barolos to allow them to “wake up” after long aging. Red wine is served at cellar temperature. White wines are served before red wines; dry wines are served before sweet wines. Champagne may be served at any time before, during, or after the meal.
Wine pours vary from three to six ounces, and the size of the glass will have a bearing on how high it is filled. A red wine glass, which is usually larger than a white wine glass, is filled no more than halfway. This allows the wine “nose,” or fragrance, to be captured in the empty space. A white glass may be filled one-third to two-thirds full, depending upon its size.
Traditionally, white wines were served with fish, chicken, pork, and veal, and red wines were served with meat, heavier dishes, and cheese. These rules have been relaxed to accommodate personal preferences. But as you educate yourself about wine, learning about tried and true food and wine pairings will be helpful.
Of course, not everyone drinks wine. If you happen to be one of those individuals and are hosting a business meal, still offer your guest wine, but suggest she order it by the glass, or employ the server to make a recommendation. You need never explain nor apologize for not drinking alcohol, whether for health, religious, or personal reasons. Instead, order what you’d like. If you would prefer not to have to fend off questions, have sparkling water with lime. No one will know it’s not a gin and tonic.
If you do drink wine, familiarize yourself with wine terminology: vintage, varietal, acid, tannins, balance, body, nose, legs, etc. Know what dry, fruity, chewy, oaky, earthy, buttery, and velvety mean. Learn how to pronounce wine names. All of this information will allow you to ask intelligent questions about the wine and to understand the descriptions the server offers. There are a number of online resources to help you, including a website by Master of Wine Jancis Robinson, jancisrobinson.com.
Not a wine drinker? Not to worry. Drinking beer is fine at many restaurants, especially casual venues that serve burgers, ribs, or pizza. If this is your choice, drink your beer from a glass that is filled in one pour, not from a bottle or can that is left on the table. But at fine restaurants when everyone else is drinking wine or alcohol, you may decide to sip sparkling water instead of standing out from the group by drinking a beer.
Tipping
Familiarity with tipping guidelines is one more indication of a host’s sophistication and generosity. The standard for restaurant servers is now 20 percent of the
pretax bill, adjusted higher or lower for the quality of service. But remember, many service issues, such as backed-up kitchens and incorrectly prepared food, are out of the server’s control. When seated at a bar, tip 15 percent when only drinks are served and 20 percent if food is included. If it is a buffet where a server brings you drinks but you serve yourself food, 10 percent to 15 percent is appropriate. Coat-check personnel are tipped $1 to $2 per coat; restroom attendants, $1 to $2; doormen, $2 to $5; and car valets, $3 to $5 upon car delivery. For a tip jar at a casual restaurant, contribute at your discretion. Do remember to have a supply of small bills on hand. Having only a $10 or $20 bill is not a sufficient reason to withhold a tip, and it’s extremely awkward to ask for change.
Activities and Events
Larry is reluctant to accept a golf invitation from a prospective vendor. He loves golf and would be thrilled to get out on this course, but there is something about the guy that rubs him wrong. Maybe it’s the not-so-subtle digs he takes at his competitors, or the “special” pricing he offers Larry that no other client gets, or the borderline inappropriate way he talks to Larry’s administrative assistant. Still, Larry likes the service this vendor’s company offers. He realizes he may be rushing to judgment and decides four hours on the golf course will give him an insight into the man’s character one way or the other. And so he accepts.
Two hours into the game, Larry has all the information he needs. He knows as well as anyone how frustrating golf can be but has never seen such poor sportsmanship. When this would-be vendor is not whining, cursing, or throwing his clubs, he is giving other golfers advice and even talking on his cell phone. And although Larry can’t prove it, he is pretty sure the guy is cheating. Larry is glad he accepted the invitation because it has made his decision crystal clear—he will never do business with a company who employs this kind of person.
Excuse Me Page 18
