Growing interest in Japanese sake has led wine and spirits supplier The Bibendum PLB Group to introduce a course for bar staff.
Bibendum PLB has developed a day-long session on sake for its trade customers, delivered by its in-house training team alongside the UK’s leading sake consultant, Natsuki Kikuya.
As well as an overview of sake, it covers the production process, the various styles, service, storage and matching sake with food.
Michael Saunders, chief executive of The Bibendum PLB Group, said: “Sake is really taking off in this country and we have seen incredible interest in the category from our trade customers since we launched our range in July.
“Sake training is a natural extension of our existing wine and spirits education programmes and demonstrates our commitment to helping our customers understand and sell top-quality drinks.”
Natsuki Kikuya added: “The session has been designed for people who are new to selling sake and will show how the category can complement wines, spirits and beers on a drinks list.
“Bibendum’s new sake range offers a wide variety of styles and flavours and staff training is key to introducing drinkers to the category and helping them understand the versatility and excitement of premium sake.”
It follows the Wine & Spirit Education Trust’s launch of the WSET Level 3 Award in Sake this month, which is taught over three days and covers how to taste, describe and assess the quality of sake as well as sake categories, label terms, production, how to read common Chinese characters, business and cultural context, trends, sales and service.
