Reflections of a Sommelier and Wine Buyer at Climat Restaurant, Manchester
Oliver Fletcher
The perspective of a sommelier & wine buyer specialised in Burgundy and terroir-focussed winemaking on how Pinot Noir, and the region it is most famously associated with, reveals its mysterious internal life, its perception and value, and its near-boundless capacity for expressivity of place. Interwoven with an exploration of the ways in which the changeable, flexible nature necessary to work in hospitality & wine service, the translatory and elucidatory aspect of a sommelier’s role at the table, and the curious, playful and exploratory identity that lends itself to learning about a wine world that changes markedly with every new vintage - all echo the expressive, etheric and ever-shifting qualities of the variety.
Oliver Fletcher is cellar manager and wine buyer for Climat, a restaurant on a rooftop in Manchester, with an award-winning wine list of around 400 references and a focus on Burgundy and Champagne from small growers. The list unfurls to showcase terroir expressive wines from thoughtfully minded producers from Europe and beyond, balancing a marriage of approaches to viticulture & winemaking which are steeped in tradition with a conscious, new wave outlook from those vignerons who seek to protect the histories of their regions, as well as caring for its future. Coming into the wine world from a background in Fine Art, I’m always trying to channel a pure, untrammelled creative energy into the wine list, and bring that evocative spirit to the conversations had with guests tableside. Obsessed currently with - among many other things - the mysteries and magic of micro (and macro) oxidisation in wines from Jura & elsewhere with notable bottle age, warring with the British public’s perception of wines from Greece and feeding an insatiable hunger for new knowledge and experience, I always hope to be the one to share an open-hearted and full-throated enthusiasm with friends, colleagues and guests for the sensorial joys of wine and food, and trying new things.