A job that's to my taste

Wine taster needed. The ability to speak a foreign language would be an advantage." Jobs like this almost never get advertised, but when the Asda wine buying team told me they had a vacancy it seemed a good time to find out what it might entail. After all, just how difficult can it be to taste wine all day? Perhaps someone reading the Yorkshire Post this morning might be the ideal candidate for the job.

Asda is one of Britain's big four supermarkets, along with Tesco, Sainsbury and Morrisons and, as such it has about 13 per cent of the UK's wine sales. That adds up to several million bottles every week, so whatever the buying team spend the company's money on, they need to make the right decisions for their customers.

I joined the buying team in the tasting room at Asda's head office in Leeds. With a window overlooking the river, most of the wall space racked out and filled with bottles and a long white tasting table equipped with spittoons, this is a professional working environment for anyone involved in the wine trade.

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On one side of the table sat the two selectors, Philippa Carr, Master of Wine, who is properly described as the wine selection manager, and Katie Mollet, wine selector.

It is their job to choose the wines that will go into the range, but they don't work alone. Spotting trends and gaps in the Asda range are category planning managers, who seem to spend a lot of time lurking around the wine shelves in their stores, waiting to pounce on customers and ask them what they would like to see on the shelves. They also take "the pulse of the nation" as they put it, by talking to more than 1,000 customers on a regular basis. "There is no better way of finding out what our customers actually want," said Katie Steele, who translates her long-winded job title into "marketing". That is how they spot whether their customers are looking for more ros wines, cheap Aussie wines, or food-friendly French wines. The wine selectors also work with "traders" who do the nitty-gritty price negotiation.

Once a gap in the range has been identified, then the message goes to Philippa and Katie who have divided the world between them. "I deal with France, Champagne, Sparkling wines, Australia, New Zealand, Chile and Argentina, while Katie looks after the rest of the world," says Philippa. The fact that they each have to deal with half the world is why they need more help.

It would be nice to think that the selectors then grab their coat and speed off around the world looking for just the right wine to fill the gap in the range, but they are much more likely to check out the competition first. Then they might put a call out to suppliers and winemakers to send in examples of wines that might fill the slot. "We always use blind tastings to select wines, so the ability to taste accurately, and communicate those tastes is very important to the job." said Philippa.

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"We discuss the styles of wines we want to have and generally get them made to our specification."

In most jobs 10am is when you might stop for a coffee break, but in the wine department at Asda they leave their desks and head for the tasting room. "We find we can taste better in the mornings, particularly between 10 and noon, and every week we 'benchmark' a number of our wines," said Philippa. "This involves calling in samples of particular wines and setting them up alongside the competition. Then we invite the suppliers along to taste them with us. The Asda wine has to beat the competition in quality terms for us to be happy with it."

The supplier of any wine which falls below that standard probably has some serious work to do. But this kind of attention to detail reaps enormous rewards. This year Asda has gathered more medals and commendations from the various wine competitions than any other supermarket.

Among the medal winning whites are a soft, tropical fruit scented Marsanne Vin de Pays 2009 (3.98), a super, bright, zesty, spicy Alsace Gewurztraminer 2008 (7.07) and a bright, floral Clare Valley Riesling 2008 (8.18).

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Notable reds includes the deep-flavoured Asda Extra Special Chteauneuf-du-Pape 2008 (14.47), the bitter cherries and almonds in Asda Extra Special Chianti Classico Riserva 2005 (7.98) and the great-value soft red fruit flavours in Marques del Norte Rioja 2009 at a bargain 4.06. Price are correct at time of going to press, but Asda's prices regularly tend to move up and down by a few pence. Clearly there is a lot to being an Asda Wine Selector. They want their candidate to have passed the Diploma examination; they want someone who is not just passionate about the product but who positively cares about Asda customers who will buy those wines. They want someone who is prepared to travel, because that global responsibility will have to be shared out, and that is where a smattering of other languages helps.

And if the candidate had been a winemaker somewhere in the world,

then that would be a real bonus.

Above all Asda is looking for someone who really cares about wine quality and understands the wine business.

"We really don't have the time to train someone in the job this time," said Philippa.

So if you think you fit those criteria, I suggest you write to the Wine department at Asda House in Leeds. Please don't write to me, but do let me know if you get the job.

YP MAG 3/7/10