Sommelier John Clancy prefers life out of the limelight. 

Clancy is a well-rounded wine man, not just a wine waiter, and those who know him attest to his great depth of knowledge about wine, which he has enhanced by study and working in wineries during the vintage.  Quiet and unobtrusive on the restaurant floor, he knows how to be effective as a sommelier without being too assertive. "He's very straightforward and direct and, unlike a lot of sommeliers, he doesn't thrust his knowledge on you," says Quay owner Leon Fink. 

As head sommelier at Quay, Clancy was in charge of all beverage purchasing, especially wine, and managing the cellar and maintaining a wine list with more than 400 listings. It's a very good wine list, although some might blanch at the realisation that there's nothing on offer for less than $50.  And yet, that's what the patrons want. "Our average bottle price would be at least $70," says Clancy. "We've found wines priced below $50 don't sell at all. Similarly, wines by-the-glass are poor sellers, too, although we do sell a lot of half-bottles." Perhaps the diners think if they're going out to spend a lot of money on food, there's no point scrimping on wine.  "We have a conservative customer base," says Clancy. "They want to have something special and they want to drink from the bottle. A lot of older people don't trust by-the-glass wines."

According to Fink, Clancy is a laid-back chap, genuine and knowledgeable. "The regulars who know him and trust him do so utterly, because they know he's not going to push things at them, or try to sell them the most expensive wines."  Clancy is not one of the more competitive sommeliers about town: he doesn't enter sommelier competitions and rarely submits an entry for wine list awards. But anyone who's been served by him knows his knowledge is spot-on.  At vintage time you're likely to find him in the Barossa, working at Rolf Binder's Veritas winery, where he's spent five consecutive vintages. He cites Binder as a major influence. "Rolf really knows what can be achieved with the fruit he works with. He knows the potential of grapes and how to get the best out of them. A lot of winemaking decisions [in other wineries] are made because of practicalities and not what's best for the wine."  The two share a love of Italian reds, especially sangiovese wines such as Chianti. Clancy is also into Piedmontese reds and enjoys Rhone blends made from grenache and mourvedre. Ask him what styles are popular at Quay and he singles out sauvignon blanc and blends including sauvignon blanc, especially those from Margaret River. "And chardonnays are making a comeback."

Working in a prestige restaurant has brought many memorable experiences, such as the Anders Josephson 40 vintages of Grange dinner, the relaunch of the Langton's Classification of Australian Wine, last year's Chateau Latour dinner for Domaine Wine Shippers and the many Len Evans judges' dinners during Royal Sydney Wine Shows, held in the restaurant's tower. 

Clancy discovered wine when, as a university student, he worked part-time in a Liquorland store in Randwick. His career in wine took flight from there. He took a course at The Wine Society and was a regular at wine educator Peter Bourne's tastings at Moore Park Cellars. He worked for Hoyts Hospitality in Sydney before going to London, where he worked at the Grosvenor House Hotel as a wine butler and did agency work. He has done the Fesq & Co/Adelaide University course and the Waite Institute course in Adelaide for trainee wine judges. He has judged at the NSW Wine Awards and worked a vintage in Portugal.  Len Evans was an important influence on Clancy, getting him into the Royal Sydney Wine Show as a steward on several occasions. Evans's Single Bottle Club dinners were also held at Quay and Evans used to eat a lot there when his friend Michael McMahon was manager. McMahon was another big influence on Clancy's career.

Author: Huon Hooke
Date: 03/09/2002
Publication: Sydney Morning Herald
Section: Good Living
Page: 22