Haron took me to my favourite hotel- restaurant for my birthday last week: a truly exquisite place, winner of numerous awards. Whilst all the staff were incredibly welcoming and professional, the young sommelier was particularly delightful: pretty, bright, and incredibly well-informed as to the wines on her list.
Knowledge like that, we concluded, could only have resulted from years of training under a truly authoritative tutor. We pictured the scene that must have taken place weekly in a cool, dimly-lit cellar somewhere in her native France. Three glasses of wine had been placed on a table before her arrival. The rules were clear – should her assessment of each sample (the grape variety, the country, the terroir, the grower, the vintage) be good, he would offer praise and fill in any details she hadn’t quite got right.
But should she be woefully inaccurate in her analysis? Then she’d know to outstretch her hands for a stroke of his thick leather strap on each palm. That, at least, would be the punishment for the first wine she failed to recognise: a second flawed tasting would lead to two further strokes on each hand. And should she get all three wrong? Then it would be three more on each hand, followed by a bare-bottomed spanking over his knee.
Her education had been painful at first, but her mentor was diligent in his help, generous with his time, and truly proud of her by the time she was ready to move on to her prestigious new role in England…
Nothing like a knowledgeable sommelier, is there?
But this is France you’re fantasizing about! A perfect excuse for the martinet, non?! 😉
@Christianna – especially not one as adorable as this particular one!
@Zille – you”re right there! LOL but it’s rare enough that OTK spankings crop up in my mind that I just had to post that. Maybe the martinet was reserved for occasions on which customers were dissatisfied with her?