What if your career depended entirely on your taste? Whether it’s their tastebuds or taste in fashion, Laura Peppas uncovers four Canberrans with jobs that revolve around their palates…

The process of wine tasting, according to sommelier Frederique Raimbaud, is akin to a blind date.

“First you look and really study them, and if you like what you see you’ll get a little closer and inhale the scent, and the taste structure of sour, bitter or sweet—then you make your decision,” she laughs.

As Pialligo Estate’s head sommelier Frederique often tastes up to 10 wines from all around the world in a day; so it’s fair to say she knows a good drop.

Originally hailing from Lyon
in France—long considered
the gastronomic capital of the world—Frederique already had a relatively strong introduction to fine food and wine; but she says it was her parents who passed on their love of ‘du vin’.

“The French have a different approach to wine compared to Australians; they are a bit more slow when it comes to drinking, they’ll nurse a drink for hours and they’ll drink more during the day before a meal—it’s a complete experience,” she says.

“My parents were wine lovers, 
so I was very much familiar with wine from the start. I then travelled around Europe a lot so I learned a lot more about different types of wines, and gained much more of an interest.”

Yet it wasn’t until she studied a course in hospitality at the Hospitality school Bonneveine in Marseille, that Frederique got serious.

After a “spur of the moment” decision to move to Australia, Frederique spent the next 18 years making a name for herself as a sommelier in some of the country’s top restaurants, including Sydney’s three-hatted restaurant Quay and Tasmania’s Josef Chromy, described by food critics as one of the country’s best outposts.

Shortly after joining Pialligo Estate, she helped them to take out
the much-coveted gong for the ACT’s best wine list from Gourmet Traveller Wine.

“I think sommeliers have really become a necessity in restaurant culture,” Frederique says.

“People are much more interested in them when visiting a restaurant, and learning more about the wine itself.”

Interest has peaked so much,
in fact, that Frederique is now teaching level 1 and level 2 Award in Wines and Spirits courses at Pialligo Estate on a regular basis.

“A lot of people in Canberra have interest in the wine industry and improving their wine education,” says Frederique.

“The course has a very eclectic crowd—there are people from all kinds of backgrounds such as firefighters, army recruits and mums and dads.

“As part of the course we test
 wine from all of Europe, as it’s an internationally recognised exam. We’ll also do a wine dinner every month with a local winemaker, called Meet the Maker. It’s a great way to recognise Canberra’s winemakers, and chat about what they do.”

Frederique says a typical day at Pialligo Estate will usually begin with wine tastings, while her palate is fresh.

“After breakfast and lunch, or even coffee, your palate will change,
 so I tend to do my tastings before anything else,” she says.

The process of wine tasting is always the same, starting with a visual inspection of the wine under neutral lighting.

“A lot of clues about a wine are buried in its appearance,” she says.

“I’m always on the lookout for good colour, opacity and viscosity (wine legs).”

Then comes smell: where Frederique will detect the primary, secondary and tertiary aromas: while the ‘taste’ step is generally an analysis of texture and the ‘length’ of the wine, though Frederique doesn’t actually swallow the wine.

“I’ll swirl the wine, then I always spit,” says Frederique.

“The taste of wine is also time- based, there is a beginning, middle (mid-palate) and end (finish).”

She has a limit, though. “I’ll usually test a maximum of 10 wines a day— it’s a bit like perfume, after that your senses stop working as well.”

When she’s not tasting, Frederique is busily researching new or interesting wines or buying matching wines for upcoming weddings and the restaurant.

Her personal favourites?

“I love Italian wine, definitely, and a good French champagne,” she says.

“Pinot noir or chardonnay are my favourites. Canberrans are also making some great quality wines too so we are very lucky here.
You’ll always find a French wine
on the menu at Pialligo though; it’s part of me so I can’t change that.”

Photography: Tim Bean Photography