David Ellis, On the Sauce with Gino Nardella, the man who’s drunk a million wines

I know a man who’s drunk a million wines – and you could, too. Meet him, that is. It’s not me (yet). This one is Gino Nardella, who’s looked after the 8,000-odd wines stacked below the Stafford hotel for 35 years, and worked at the place for 45. Trouble is, you’ll need to make haste – good game’s a quick game – as he’s calling time on his shift at the end of September. I’d call him a quitter but, well, he’s too much of a gent to deserve that and besides, I don’t want him to start pouring me the cheap stuff.

And at this point you might be going: “chat to a sommelier? I like my plonk without the powerpoints, thanks.” And true, the wine industry has a reputation for windbags. But Nardella’s not like that – he’s all softly, softly, no push, no pretence. So, if it happens that finding good bottles is your bag, seek him out; not only because he’s an utter softie with stories of royalty and rockstars, but because, how often do you get to really learn from one of the old pros?

If you don’t know it, the Stafford is one of those stiff upper lip places in St James’s, ostensibly (but not really) for types who think the Ritz a touch tacky for selling jewellery in the foyer. It happens to have a coy sense of humour and no time for snobbery, which is why I end up there a handful of times a year. Nadella – who astonishingly isn’t their longest-serving member of staff – arrived in ‘76 from his native Italy.

“Back then, having a glass of wine in the pub, you risked your palate for the next two or three months,” he laughs softly. “While the hotel was strictly Bordeaux and Burgundy only, with some German riesling served too.” But working with his predecessor, Keith Dougherty, the pair slowly started exploring bottles from South African, Australia, California. Then, these wines were largely unknown, and few others were doing it. That must have been fun, I say. “Well, it wasn’t easy to sell them,” he counters, “The guests, they thought we were not well in the head!”

They got there in the end. Now wine is poured from everywhere from Chile to Canada, and Nadella’s always looking for what’s next (hence the astonishing number of wines tasted; in the early part of the year, he says, he can taste 2500 glasses-a-week at industry events). “I’m keeping an eye on Hungary, the Czech Republic. The next 10 years, I think, we’ll start to see some great vintages come out of eastern Europe.”

It’s not as unlikely as it might seem, he says, nodding to the rise of English wines over the decade past. “The first time I tried English wine, it was 1978 and a white wine from the Isle of Wight. But…” – Nardella is given to pauses that mean something – “Well, it wasn’t till the late 80s we saw the others come along.”

The reason to meet him is partly for the stories – ask him about what “breakfast” means to most Australian winemakers, ask him about the Queen Mother – and partly to see the 400-year-old cellars. But it’s also because it’s just what he does; “This job, it’s always been about the people who come in. Some of them, I’ve known them 30 years, I know their children, their grandchildren. They ring me up sometimes; ‘Gino, I’m eating this, these people are coming: help! What do I serve?’” And Nardella will tell them, because he’s like that. A man who’s drunk a million wines – that’s a good friend to have.

The Stafford, 16-18 St James’s Place, SW1A; wine from £7 (but most rather more), thestaffordlondon.com