While the Ocean restaurant may be best known for its scrumptious
food, The restaurant’s wine rack is comprised of approximately 560
national and international wines making it one of the most presti-
gious and largest private vintage wines collection in the entire Iberian
Peninsula. The selection is carefully overseen by Sommelier Nelson
Marreiros. CovetED had a moment to talk to Ricardo, a collaborator
that does a bit of everything regarding the service of the restaurant
but his passion for wine is simply indescribable.
Originally from Algarve, Ricardo is quite versatile and multifaceted
when it comes to his work at Ocean. His main function is to oversee
the service but he can actually handle other things, such as wines,
cellar organization, orders, reception, etc. In his previous job, he was
responsible for the management of a wine cellar and since then his
passion for wine taste grew significantly. Professionally speaking,
He found it was a necessity to learn more about the taste of wine,
as he explains
“It started growing because I liked it. I started to
take some courses, then I left Portugal for two and
a half years and now I’m at Ocean’s ... The choice of
the wine is an important part of every restaurant,
especially this one.”
Working in this industry is a continuous learning process as one has
to often adapt to the environment. For Ricardo, it is important to
know if a guest may be a wine connoisseur or what is their knowl-
edge of wine and try to answer to their curiosity as well as learning
from them,
“Essentially is about knowing how to read the
clients with the questions they ask ... Give as much
information as possible and adapt my speech ...
they themselves [clients] interfere in a positive way
and help with the explanations, but if there are any
doubts I’ll gladly explain.”
According to Ricardo, guests normally ask for something that is best
suited to their knowledge and reality while wine connoisseurs tend
to listen more to the sommelier’s recommendation. When asked if
the restaurant had a predefined system regarding the selection of
wines, Ricardo thrillingly answered,
“Since we’re the ones that do the list, we already
know that we’re going to have a particular profile
of wines from a particular style or compare it with
something from outside.”
RICARDO RODRIGUES
THE SOMMELIER
