Geneva, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – Benjamin Marais is the new wine steward at the Kempinski Grand Hotel’s recently opened restaurant, The Grill. At the fair age of 25 he has amassed considerable knowledge about wines, but also about the people who drink them, including younger drinkers. He previously worked at the Mirador in Lausanne where he landed after spending some months enjoying the Swiss Alps. "I came to Switzerland from the Val de Loire because I love the mountains," he confesses. The Grill is targeting, among others, sophisticated young people, not so different from Marais himself, who don’t want to spend hours eating a large meal. They want good wine with their meals, says Marais, but they often don’t know how to find it.
His advice: start with what you know, your own preferred tastes, and if you don’t yet know that, he’ll help you find out. "At a certain age, people know what they want, but the young don’t. They haven’t worked out their own taste in wine yet. I want to help them discover a coup de coeur," a wine they’ll fall in love with, he says. "I ask them about the sensations they enjoy, I try to find out the structure of a wine they might like."
Gone are the intimidating lists by grape variety, so common in France
where he grew up, the grandson of innkeepers. He learned about wine
from them but he says he would like to see the practice end and wines
presented in ways that are easier to understand. The wine list at The
Grill groups them by flavours rather than grape varieties and countries.
For now he has selected only 50-60 wines for his list, "to start,"
while he learns more about The Grill’s customers. "We’re here so that
customers can enjoy their wine, so I want to learn from them." The
restaurant is modern and he wants the wine list to reflect this. Prices
range from CHF49 for a mix of good quality wines from around the world
to 300 for the grand crus some customers will always expect.
Also see: "Geneva’s Paquis for a night out (or in)," GenevaLunch, 14 February 2008.