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Caviste (from French – cellar worker) is a person who understands elite alcohol, knows the history and rules for serving any alcoholic drink, and knows how to quickly pick up a gastronomic pair. This profession is often confused with a sommelier. Despite the fact that they are really very similar, there are many differences between them.
Common features
Sommeliers and cavistes mainly work with wine, this is their main specialty, but they can expertly pick up any other type of alcohol. It is believed that such specialists must truly love their job, work should also be their hobby and passion.
Cavist and sommeliers are in contact with people, so their duties include impeccable manners, the ability to resolve conflicts, and find an individual approach to the client.
The difference between a cavist and a sommelier
A sommelier works in a restaurant and is often trained there. When choosing wine for a client, he is guided not only by the personal preferences of the guest, but also by the ordered dishes. He himself does not sell anything, rather, a sommelier is a highly specialized waiter who is responsible only for alcoholic beverages.
It is fundamentally important for a sommelier to be able to open a bottle and pour wine correctly, and he must also have tasting skills in order to recognize low-quality or spoiled alcohol by color and smell.
Kavist is, first of all, a sales specialist. He works in wine boutiques, studies there or at specialized courses, and the choice of alcohol is mainly determined by the client’s budget. Also, a professional will definitely ask how the chosen alcohol will be used – whether it will be served as an aperitif or digestif, put on the table during a family dinner or a gala event, or even hidden in an enoteca and saved for a special occasion. All this affects the choice.
Cavist does not have to be able to handle bottles, but he must know the store’s assortment to perfection, be able to tell in detail about grape varieties, terroirs, appellations, good and bad years, international ratings and awards of a particular brand. Know the difference between similar drinks, such as sherry and port, tequila and mezcal.
The profession of an oenologist is a little different. If a sommelier and a cavist are practitioners, then an oenologist is more of a theorist, a scientist from alcohol. To become an oenologist, it is not enough to take local courses, you need to graduate from the chemical or agricultural department of the university with a specialization in oenology. It is the oenologist who selects grape varieties for blends, works with the bouquet of the drink and, as a perfumer, develops new brands.
We can say that a good kavist should also be a sommelier and a bit of an oenologist. In principle, one does not exclude the other: a former sommelier can get a job as a cavist, and vice versa.
The second meaning of the term kavist
The term “kavist” has another meaning. Cavist is also called an employee of the winery, who is responsible for the technology of wine production, especially at the stage of aging and bottling.
The work of a cavist does not involve hand-picking the harvest, there are workers for this, but this specialist checks whether it is too damp in the cellars, prepares vats or barrels for aging wine, and deals with other equipment. When the berries are harvested, it is the kavist who makes sure that there are no wrinkled or rotten ones among them, sets the fermentation temperature, decides whether to add sugar.
When everything is ready, the kavist monitors the bottling and labeling, he sometimes collects the order for the wholesale buyer and deals with the shipment of batches.
In small farms with limited staff, such a cavist can, in fact, perform the duties of an oenologist.
In the Russian tradition, the kavist is often referred to as the “caretaker of the cellar” (maître de chai). In fact, this is already the next degree in the career of a wine specialist, with a much larger range of duties and an extensive area of responsibility.