WINE waiters have an image problem - two image problems, indeed. Recent excursions out to dinner, backed up by a quick poll of restaurant-roving friends, suggest some drinking time may yet elapse before we are entirely free of two sommelier species which should be extinct. One is the big-head who oozes condescension, makes you spend more than you meant to and pours the wine so fast that three-quarters of a bottle has vanished before the main course arrives. The other is the clueIess, careless fool who answers "white and red" when you enquire what the house wine is, and who slops out your precious choice like a farm-hand replenishing a pig trough.
But these, mercifully, are the exceptions. Irish wine waiters are undoubtedly becoming more knowledgeable, sensitive and skilled. This welcome trend has come about partly because of the flourishing wine education movement, which is teaching consumers so much that the staff of any self respecting restaurant are obliged to keep one step ahead. It is also accelerated by competitions like the Grand Prix Sopexa du Sommelier, organised by Food & Wine From France.
This morning Ireland's representative in the 1997 international final will be anxiously nibbling his croissant in a Paris hotel and wondering how he has acquitted himself against the top wine waiters from 23 other countries in two full days of tests.
When I say that he is Alain Bras, originally from Perigord and currently working in Sheen Falls Lodge in Kenmare, you may be inclined to perform a Gallic shrug and think, bloody great, a French competition, so Ireland has to be represented by a Frenchman.
But hang on a minute. Alain Bras may come of gourmet French stock (Michel Bras of Michelin three-star fame in Laguiole is one of several foodie relatives) but after 16 years in the restaurant trade in Ireland he is well Hibernicised. More to the point, he was the clear winner of the Irish final last September, beating Fionnuala Flanagan of Lacken House into second place and Simon Keegan of the K Club into third.
"Only late in life did I decide that I wanted to find out where I stood with regard to wine," he says, sounding twice as old as 38. "That's why I entered. It was only when I began to work at Whites on the Green in the mid-1980s that I discovered I had a palate. Before that, I only had knowledge."
There's no doubting the enthusiasm of this amiable, eminently approachable wine waiter. "Suddenly you find you've made a customer's evening, if you've been able to describe a wine to them in such a way that they've enjoyed it more. I love that and I love all the different flavours, all the regional characteristics." Within France, he singles out for special mention lesser-known appellations like Savennieres (which he urges customers to try as an aperitif) and Jurancon, as well as the Cabernet Franc-based red wines of the Loire and the hearty wines of Provence. But his passion knows no national boundaries, as is clear from the Sheen Falls wine-list of 420 bins, recently revamped after a monster tasting session. Next week he will have a chance to discover more goodies as a visit to Vinexpo, the big international wine fair in Bordeaux, is part of his prize for having flown the Irish flag in Paris these past few days.
Fionnuala Flanagan of Lacken House in Kilkenny, who was runner-up in the national final of the Grand Prix Sopexa du Sommelier 1997, is cheerful proof that skilled sommeliers do not necessarily have to burn with zeal for the catering profession from a tender age. "I stumbled into it completely by chance while I was waiting to get into nursing," she says. Ten years later, hotel management trainee at Hotel Kilkenny, restaurant supervisor at the Sligo Park and manager of Lacken House are the key phrases on her CV.
"It was at the Sligo Park that I got hooked on wine," she explains. "The head waiter was a tee-totaller and the manager was anxious that somebody should take the Wine Certificate Course." The bug bit deeper when she moved to Lacken House just as Breda McSweeney was preparing to represent Ireland in the 1994 international final of the Sopexa competition. She has since become Fionnuala's unofficial tutor "a fantastic help" - putting her through her paces with frequent blind tastings.
Simon Keegan, who came third in this year's Irish final, has also been lucky to have a mentor of premier cru quality. Entering the Sopexa competition for the first time in 1994, after several years of hotel and restaurant work, more related to bar drinks than wine, he found himself in the final "just by luck". Feeling out of his depth, he contacted Didier Fiat, the K Club's head wine waiter and a former contestant, for advice. "He gave me some tips and then suggested I work with him for an evening," Simon recalls. "When I did, I was offered a job as his assistant."
Serious and ambitious about his career, Simon Keegan is now studying for the Wine Diploma as well as the highest examination of the Court of Master Sommeliers - a qualification which is known to triple sommeliers' salaries in the United States, which gives you a clue to the direction he may ultimately take. He hopes still to be in the K Club, however, the day a customer decides to order the Romanee-Conti Grand Cru Monopole 1990 listed at £4,000. Luckily our top sommeliers were persuaded to choose favourite wines which reveal slightly less flamboyant tastes.