The Wine Key offers four wait staff training seminars that are designed as a complete server training program in wine. Each lecture can and does operate independently of the others, but the four seminars are most powerful as a unit.

This seminar series covers wine basics…then goes beyond, encouraging wine sales by boosting wait staff confidence, increasing product knowledge and polishing upselling skills.

• Wine 101: The basics. What is wine? What distinguishes a good wine from a great wine? What are the benchmarks of quality? By tasting various wine components, we will discuss the concepts of balance, harmony and extract, build a concrete understanding of wine and learn a solid wine vocabulary. Guaranteed to have the staff “talking tannin” in 90 minutes.

• Wine Aromas and Descriptors: Eighty per cent of what we call taste is actually aroma. Blindly identify 30 wine aromas, build a descriptive vocabulary, then learn to describe wine tableside with polish and professionalism.

• Upselling: Learn how to suggest a wine, pop that cork and sell a second bottle! Find out how to get a customer to trade up in food and in wine. Learn how to make tactful recommendations without stepping on any toes. Find out how to increase the bottom line…and your tips.

• Food and Wine Pairing: Explore the fundamental building blocks of food and wine pairing. Found out why Chateau Haut-So-Good tastes oh-so-bad with certain dishes. Learn how to put together perfect pairings that make both food and wine show to best advantage.