Brendon Charles has brought the wine culture to Trinidad with his winery, Brendon Charles Hospitality or BCH. While Charles acknowledges that Trinis can make their own wine from local fruit, he said he’s not an expert on that, but wanted to introduce the European wine experience.
Charles told Business Day how his position as a sommelier came to pass after he left TT on a football scholarship.
A sommelier is a wine steward and is trained and knowledgeable in all aspects of wine, some of which are the wine’s flavour profile, its history and pairing the wine with food.
“I left at 19 under a football scholarship to the US, where I studied business and economics (at Shorter University, Georgia) before I started to work in hospitality. But that was just waiting tables, dishwashing – whatever I can get part-time for extra cash. Steak ‘n’ Shake (Illinois) was my first gig, and I have actually worked in hospitality at all levels, including drive-through.”
He said after that he realised he wanted to get deeper into hospitality and started a master’s degree in international hotel and resort management at Oxford Brookes University, England.
“From there, I worked in London mostly, so I worked at a lot of wine bars, restaurants, intercontinental hotels – London at Park Lane-Four Seasons Hotel. At Park Lane, that’s where I really got the opportunity to specifically into wine and became a commis sommelier.”
[caption id="attachment_1017870" align="alignnone" width="1024"] Votini, a locally produced vodka available at Brendon Charles Hospitality. - ROGER JACOB[/caption]
A commis sommelier or trainee sommelier, is tasked with helping the head sommelier in the form of
mise en place (preparing the ingredients in the kitchen), cellar work, cleaning and care of glassware, among many other tasks.
“When I left the UK, I got the opportunity to go to Dubai, not as a commis, but as an established sommelier this time. It was for the pre-opening of the Conrad Dubai under the Hilton brand.”
Charles said he went from learning about 250 wines at the Park Lane Hotel to 500 wines, which he said was a big learning curve.
Charles has also worked at a Michelin-starred restaurant, Hakkasan Dubai. Michelin stars are awarded to restaurants that are considered the very best, and restaurants are given between one and three stars – three being the highest award.
"After that I worked at Okku in Dubai, which is a Japanese restaurant, I did that for three years, and became head sommelier before becoming the bar manager.”
While training, Charles said he felt a bit intimidated by the material he had to familiarise himself with and the expectations of trainees. He added that to this day, he still has the learning material given to him.
Charles is an award-winning sommelier: he was named Sommelier of the Year for the Middle East region by Caterer Middle East Magazine at 32. Now 38, he has also achieved the Award of Excellence for Okku Dubai and Pierchic Dubai for the extensive wine lists he created.
After Pierchic Dubai, Charles went t
