wine waiter

wine waiter (plural wine waiters)

1. The member of staff at a restaurant who keeps the wine cellar, advises guests on the choice of wines and serves them.
   • 1932, E. Phillips Oppenheim, “The Ghosts of Suicide Corner” in Crooks in the Sunshine, London: Hodder & Stoughton,

     Waiters paused in their hurrying to and fro, and stood with dishes in their hands, watching the curiously circling birds. A wine waiter, who had been serving some priceless Burgundy, went on pouring it until the wine was trickling in a little stream across the table-cloth on to the floor.

   • 1945, Sinclair Lewis, Cass Timberlaine, New York: Random House, Chapter 23,

     […] she listened admiringly while Cass, who knew nothing whatever about the subject, held a symposium on sauternes with the wine-waiter.

   • 2006, Winston Fletcher, “Too much wine, too many waiters,” The Guardian, 25 July, 2006,

     Sometimes I hear people asking “Can you recommend a wine to go with the salmon (or whatever)?” To which the wine waiter’s first response should surely be—though I have never heard a wine waiter ask it—“How much do you want to spend exactly?”

• sommelier, wine steward