{"id":2179,"date":"2016-10-03T02:20:47","date_gmt":"2016-10-03T01:20:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www2.ift.edu.mo\/NewsPortal\/?p=2179"},"modified":"2017-05-22T02:34:53","modified_gmt":"2017-05-22T01:34:53","slug":"an-ambassador-of-good-taste","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.utm.edu.mo\/NewsPortal\/an-ambassador-of-good-taste\/","title":{"rendered":"An ambassador of good taste"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" width=\"1320\" height=\"743\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/VOxm5az5Xc8?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<span class='pum-trigger  popmake-2183  text-center font-blue' data-do-default=''>\u4e2d\u6587\u6458\u8981\u548c\u77ed\u7247\uff08\u512a\u9177\u8996\u983b\u9023\u7d50\uff09 \/ Summary in Chinese and video (YouKu version)<\/span>\n<p>\u201cMy philosophy is that wine is for sharing,\u201d says Studio City sommelier Mr. Joe Yang. \u201cNo matter how expensive the bottle, if you drink it by yourself, you won\u2019t appreciate it.\u201d Wine, he says, \u201cmust be enjoyed with friends\u201d.<\/p>\n<p>Wine is a topic that Mr. Yang understands. He is building a career as an internationally recognised sommelier. In September, he placed joint second in the final of the 2016 Wines of South Africa International Sommelier Cup competition.<\/p>\n<p>The contest is held every 3 years with South African wines. Mr. Yang flew the flag for Asia, having won the Asian semi-final of the contest in Hong Kong. The other 7 finalists were from Europe, North America and Africa. \u201cI really believe that sommeliers in Asia have the potential to be as good as those in Europe, or even better,\u201d Mr. Yang says.<\/p>\n<p>It was while studying at IFT that Mr. Yang discovered his passion for wine. He graduated from the Institute in 2009 with a Bachelor Degree in Hotel Management. He says scholars Mr. David Wong and Dr. Baudouin Neirynck were influential in stimulating his interest in wine. Mr. Yang joined the IFT Student Union Wine Appreciation Club, which gave him the chance to take part in wine-related events. \u201cIt was a very good platform for me to meet people and learn about wine,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Key to the cellar<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Mr. Yang\u2019s first job after graduation had nothing to do with wine: he worked in the front office at the Hotel Lisboa. In 2010, while still a front office employee, and lacking any working experience of the food and drink business, he entered a sommelier competition. \u201cSurprisingly, I won,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n<p>His victory launched Mr. Yang\u2019s career in the world of wine. In 2011 he began working at the Altira hotel as a sommelier. There, he says, he learned \u201ca lot about management, especially how to run a wine programme\u201d. At the same time he increased his knowledge of wine by taking a specialist course at IFT.<\/p>\n<p>Two and a half years later, Mr. Yang accepted a new challenge: helping to start a wine trading company in Macao. \u201cI did everything, from logistics to knowing how to source fine wines in Europe, how to choose which brands to promote and how to deal with new customers, mostly private,\u201d he says. To know the whole supply-and-demand chain in this industry, he says, is valuable.<\/p>\n<p>Mr. Yang joined the Studio City integrated resort last year, working under Jo\u00e3o Pires, the first Portuguese to gain the international qualification of Master Sommelier. \u201cI was very excited to work with such high-level, highly accomplished professionals,\u201d Mr. Yang says.<\/p>\n<p>Mr. Yang now manages the provision of wine at Studio City, which has 20 venues to eat and drink, and a main wine cellar containing bottles bearing almost 500 different labels. His work includes training the staff to serve wine properly.<\/p>\n<p>What, in Mr. Yang\u2019s opinion, makes a good sommelier? \u201cThe most important thing is attitude,\u201d he says. \u201cBeing a sommelier is like being an ambassador, connecting wine and the customer.\u201d It helps, he adds, to have \u201ca lot of knowledge about wine\u201d.<\/p>\n<p>A recent IFT graduate that wants to become a sommelier must have \u201cthe heart to learn\u201d, Mr. Yang says, because wine is a subject \u201cwith no end\u201d. And an aspiring sommelier must also be prepared to work long hours, he adds.<\/p>\n<p>Most of all, Mr. Yang advises any new graduate of IFT to keep an open mind about opportunities that arise. \u201cI believe Macao is a place where, if you work hard, if you have the heart to do things, you will get rewarded,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>\u201cMy philosophy is that wine is for sharing,\u201d says Studio City sommelier Mr. Joe Yang. \u201cNo matter how expensive the bottle, if you drink it by yourself, you won\u2019t appreciate [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":18,"featured_media":2182,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"video","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[55],"tags":[261,296,299,297,298,300],"class_list":["post-2179","post","type-post","status-publish","format-video","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-alumni","tag-hotel-management","tag-joe-yang","tag-melco-resorts","tag-sommelier","tag-studio-city","tag-wines-of-south-africa-international-sommelier-cup","post_format-post-format-video"],"views":1177,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.utm.edu.mo\/NewsPortal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2179","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.utm.edu.mo\/NewsPortal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.utm.edu.mo\/NewsPortal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.utm.edu.mo\/NewsPortal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/18"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.utm.edu.mo\/NewsPortal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2179"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.utm.edu.mo\/NewsPortal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2179\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2186,"href":"https:\/\/www.utm.edu.mo\/NewsPortal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2179\/revisions\/2186"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.utm.edu.mo\/NewsPortal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2182"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.utm.edu.mo\/NewsPortal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2179"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.utm.edu.mo\/NewsPortal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2179"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.utm.edu.mo\/NewsPortal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2179"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}