Tinashe joined The Pot Luck with Luke Dale-Roberts as Assistant Sommelier in Aug 2019.
Tinashe worked at Planet Restaurant at the Belmond Mount Nelson and arrived with a keen interest in the industry and relished the fact that the Planet Restaurant afforded him the unusual opportunity of experiencing two very different and very distinct styles when it comes eating and drinking. In the main dining room, he knows it has to be all about new and classic fine dining whereas the ‘Chefs Table’ creates a more intimate and personal experience with the diners. In both cases, he enjoys finding the relationship between service, wine, upselling and guest satisfaction.
It was a year of steady growth for Tinashe and he finds himself in the comfortable position of really knowing and appreciating the large array of wines offering by Mount Nelson, and the great variety of wines produced locally. He likes to study the wines in order to fathom the complexities and different flavours of what is on offer. However, at the end of the day, he admits to having a current personal favourite in the form of the merlot wines. Being a diligent student of wine, he is quick to point out that he is already experimenting with other varieties to find “my next favourite wine or wines”.
Tinashe was a candidate for the Distell Inter Hotel Challenge in 2018