Sommelier Moses Magwaza garnered recognition for his service and curated wine lists at Restaurant Mosaic, earning prestigious awards like the 2017 and 2018 Eat Out Wine Service Award and the 2020 Sommelier Luxe Award. Both his service and the wine lists under his curation at Restaurant Mosaic, Orient Hotel, Pretoria have been highly praised.
Moses holds qualifications from the Cape Wine Academy and The Wine and Spirit Education Trust, UK, and is currently the sommelier and restaurant manager at Prosopa in Pretoria, where he is building a wine list in line with his passion for pairing African ingredients with wine.
Moses Magwaza, Hostex 2024 ambassador and sommelier.
How did your journey in wine and hospitality begin?
It all started back in 2004 when I first met Cobus du Plessis (owner of Restaurant Mosaic at The Orient Hotel). I started working at his house as a gardener. In 2005, he started to build Restaurant Mosaic where I moved to work as a gardener, after the hotel and the restaurant was operating, I moved to be a porter and maintenance guy.
One busy evening I was asked to help out in the restaurant as a waiter, wearing a fancy suit for the first time in my life. That was the best feeling ever.
I did well and I was moved from being a porter to a waiter. Cobus had a huge collection of wines that he kept in the private cellar at his house, and when it was time for the wines to be moved to the restaurant cellar I was given the task to pack the wines and make the cellar look neat and clean.
As a young man from a township who didn’t know anything about wine but only beer and whisky, it got me interested and excited. I started reading about wine and enrolled at Cape wine academy for my introduction in wine. I did well, and I was hooked forever.
Why is it important to have qualified staff serving customers in the wine industry?
It’s not only qualified staff who is important; you can also have staff members who are not qualified but knowledgeable about the service. That is very important, because he or she can answer the very important questions from the customers, and that elevates the good service. A happy customer will recommend your restaurant to his family and friends will keep the business going.
When it comes to waitering, each and every restaurant must have their in-house training, because each restaurant has their own style of service. When it comes to wine training, we have the South African Sommelier Association (SASA), Cape Wine Academy, Wine and Spirits Educational Trust (WSET) and Cheninnoir. All offer courses from Intro to Diploma level.
How should waiters and sommeliers balance their own preferences and knowledge with the customer’s expectations and preferences when suggesting a wine?
A sommelier or a waiter should understand the customer’s favourite or preference, that will guide you to your recommendation. What is very important to the customer is trust – once they see that you know what you are talking about as a waiter or sommelier then they will trust your recommendation.
How do you handle a situation where a customer is dissatisfied with their wine?
There are two scenarios in this situation. Firstly, if the customer is not happy with his choice but there is no fault in the wine and the sommelier confirmed that, unfortunately it is not the restaurant’s fault. The customer can either take the wine home with them or give it to someone who will like it, because he or she chose the wine.
But if there is a fault in the wine, then the restaurant should take full responsibility and replace the bottle of wine or give them something different.
As a sommelier, you’re allowed to taste the wine first before serving it, especially when you suspect something. The colour will be the first thing to tell you if there is any fault or the health of the wine, and smelling the wine will confirm your judgment.
Otherwise, different types of wines are served in different ways. Temperature is very important.
What are some of the challenges or opportunities faced by the hospitality industry in the current wine market?
People rely on social media more than you can imagine. That can have a positive and negative impact in the hospitality industry through negative reviews, comments or posts by customers, misinformation or fake news.
We love this industry, but it is a very challenging one. First it was Covid-19, where lots of businesses were closed down and the wine industry was shut down. After that, we thought everything is back to normal, then 2022 came along and the ongoing fallout from the Covid global supply collided headfirst with Russian-Ukraine war, resulting in major shortages of packaging, escalating dry goods cost and causing a near total collapse in the supply of glass bottles, so again the wine and hospitality industry were faced with challenges.
Events like Hostex are important because people will interact with the restaurateurs, suppliers and producers. I see Hostex as the biggest platform to bring back good standing to the hospitality industry. It’s a show that innovates, elevates and demonstrates.
