Wine 101: The Wine List

[Brad Ballinger]

Dining out at a restaurant where you actually sit down for more than 30 minutes is – in North America – still something closer to a special occasion than not. In many other regions of the globe, dining out is done more frequently, and less expensively. With apologies to those eGullet Society members who reside elsewhere, this installment of Wine 101 is going to focus on the restaurant wine experience in North America. There may be some similarities to restaurant dining elsewhere in the world, so I hope this isn’t entirely exclusive.

Going out to dinner at a place that doesn’t offer a kids’ menu usually means a wine list will be placed on the table along with the menus. Some restaurants list the wine and other beverages on the actual menu, but most still have a separate piece of paper, folder, or even book. I have seen diners play a variation of “musical chairs” as they attempt to avoid sitting at the seat whose place setting includes the wine list. And for the unlucky individual who loses the game and gets stuck with the list, there is sometimes the ill-fated attempt to slyly slide it over to someone else’s place setting. Of course, some dining room managers are aware of this and simply place the list in the middle of the table where everyone pretends to ignore it.

So how did we get to this place? In the United States (maybe Canada, too, but I honestly don’t know), bottles of wine almost always cost more than the entrée – sometimes quite a bit more – so that means there’s a large risk associated with ordering something priced so extravagantly. Also, most diners likely see more names and types of wine with which they are more unfamiliar than familiar. Those two elements can result in a fair amount of perspiration and angst for the person stuck ordering the wine. Compound that with the perception in the U.S. that we have to get a food and wine pairing exactly right, and it becomes much easier to understand why people think they’ll get cooties if they pick up the wine list.

So here are some thoughts to consider next time you find yourself in the position of *gasp* having to order wine in a restaurant.

Ask for expert help. If you are in a restaurant that has a sommelier on staff, you’re in luck. There is an expert on site who has – more often than not – tasted each of the wines and sampled all of the restaurant’s cuisine. So if you are a male, drop the machismo and “ask for directions.” If the sommelier asks if he or she can recommend a wine, engage in the conversation. They are throwing you’re a rope; don’t hang yourself with it.

You can help the sommelier make a better recommendation for you if you tell him or her what you plan on ordering, how much you’d like to pay, how you’d like to “pace” the wines (do you want to stretch out one bottle through the entire evening? start with one wine then move onto another? have a couple bottles open to compare?), and what types of wines you typically like or don’t like. It’s okay to say, “I usually drink XYZ Winery’s wines, but I don’t see them on your list. Do you have anything comparable?” Don’t be afraid to say, “That’s a bit more than I’d like to pay.” The days of the snooty wine steward are over. A good sommelier wants you to enjoy your experience and make a return visit. Shaming you won’t result in either of those things.

Ask for less than expert help. If there isn’t a dedicated person on staff who handles the wine program, your table server may be able to help you. This will depend on several factors, however. How much general wine knowledge or training does your server have? Has your server tasted all the wines? Has your server tasted all the menu items? Does your server even like wine? Take caution here. There are some servers who, like you, may have an ego and want to appear confident, and may make a recommendation that doesn’t work for you. The good ones will do a good job, but good help isn’t that easy to find nowadays.

Staff training regarding wine, if done at all, is usually done by a distributor. Most, not all, wine distributor reps are salespeople first and wine people second, and they’ve learned how to sound knowledgeable about their company’s portfolio. You will find that some restaurants only feature wines of one distributor, maybe two. It’s easier for them to manage it that way, and if you were busy taking care of everything that needs to be taken care of in a restaurant, and had a small staff, you’d be tempted to do the same thing. Anyway, the point I’m getting to is that the server may be able to “talk a good game” about the wines on the list, but not really have that much knowledge. You’ll need to rely on your ability to determine how helpful your server actually is.

Do some advanced prep work. If you are still worried about your ego or making the right impression, you can always conduct a little preparation work. If a restaurant has a web site, often you will find a wine list available online. It may or may not be up to date, but it will give you an idea of what wines are featured. You can then telephone the restaurant (during a slow time please) and ask to speak with someone about the wine list. You can get your questions answered in advance and make a confident order when seated at the table. If the restaurant doesn’t have a wine list available online, and if it is convenient to do so, you can drop by in person – again, during a slow time or after making an appointment – to visit with the sommelier or some other knowledgeable staff member.

If you are able to see the wine list beforehand – either via a web site or by obtaining a hard copy – you can also ask for help from anyone you deem knowledgeable to help you.

Understand restaurant wine pricing. In a three-tier distribution system (producer/importer, importer/wholesaler, retailer) the product is marked up at every point of transaction. The final markup is done by the retailer (in this case, the restaurant), but all the markups affect the price the consumer pays. Some restaurants mark up wine more than others, but the mark up is anywhere between 50 to 400 percent the cost the restaurant pays to the wholesaler. I confess to not knowing why nearly every restaurant marks up based on a percentage of the wholesale cost, but they do. A very few restaurants mark up the same dollar amount for every bottle regardless of wholesale price. In essence, such a restaurant is saying, “We’ll make $X on every bottle of wine” and are generally hoping to make more wine-related revenue through volume than individual bottle margin.

But let’s stick to percentage markups since that’s what you will face most of the time. In that practice, however, not all wines are treated equally. Generally, the lower-priced wines are marked up at a higher percentage than the more expensively-priced wines. So although the “sticker price” you pay may be lower, you are paying a higher markup and not getting as great a “value.” But value, in this model, is based on price alone, and we all know that higher-priced wines aren’t necessarily better wines.

Find out missing information. I never cease to be amazed by how much information is either incorrect or missing entirely from wine lists. Too many don’t list the vintage of the wine. I understand one reason is because the same wine is bought every vintage as part of a large contract with a distributor, and the restaurant (or the restaurant’s headquarters) doesn’t want to reprint the list. If vintage year is important to you, there is nothing wrong with asking your server to find out the vintage year for you – especially if you are paying a 300% markup. Other lists may have the growing region or appellation missing or incomplete – California instead of Napa Valley, Bordeaux instead of St. Julien, Rhone instead of Cote Rotie, Germany instead of Pfalz, and so on. Don’t be afraid to ask to see the bottle or ask for more detail. If the grape variety is important to you, know that most European wines are labeled according to territory and not grape. You may have to ask what the primary grape is. But some wines (such as Cotes-du-Rhone) will be made from many different grapes (perhaps as much as 13), and, depending on the knowledge of your server, you may get an incorrect answer. I was once in the most expensive restaurant in Minneapolis and the server was listing the featured wines by the glass. She mentioned one being made from the grape “chianti.”

Take advantage of the presentation. After you’ve ordered the wine, your next pressure-filled moment is dealing with the presentation and tasting ritual. Please don’t view it as something to get through as quickly as possible. What you learn during this part of the wine service can have an impact on how much you will enjoy your evening moving forward. The server will almost always show you the bottle before opening it. This is done so you can confirm that it is, in fact, the wine you ordered. Double check the producer, vintage, region and/or grape variety. If any of the information is incorrect, let your server know. There could be a chance that the wrong bottle was pulled or that the wine list is incorrect. If the latter is the reason for the inconsistency, you will have to decide if you want to stick with the bottle the server is holding or order a different wine. Again, remember the markup you are paying. You are entitled to be picky.

Once you’ve approved of the selection, the server will remove the cork (or unscrew the cap since more wines are being bottle with screw cap closures nowadays). You may or may not be handed the cork. If so, check to make sure it is moist on one end. Anything the cork would tell you about the bottle being flawed is going to show up when you taste the wine anyway, so the cork thing is really not a big deal.

The server will then pour a taste for the person who ordered the wine. At this point, you are tasting the wine primarily to determine if there is something wrong with it. See the Wine 101 topic Disgusting Things in Wine for a primer here. If the wine is not flawed, you can give the server the “okay” to pour it for all seated at your table. If it is flawed, you have the right to send it back. Sending a bottle back should only be done if the wine is flawed. A bottle should not be sent back simply because you don’t like it. Some places will be gracious and take back a bottle simply because the customer doesn’t like it – perhaps if the sommelier recommended it – but that’s up to the individual restaurant, and I would never expect it.

Let me add a couple of other suggestions regarding the presentation and tasting ritual based on experience. First, I always smell the empty glass before the wine is poured for tasting. At one restaurant in Boston, I smelled something like mildew coming from my glass of wine. My wife’s glass of the same wine was fine, however. It ended up that the wine was okay, but my glass had been washed or dried with a towel that should’ve been in the laundry. Second, some people only smell the wine, and proclaim it okay for pouring. That may look impressive, but it’s not very effective. When you taste a wine, you also learn something of its temperature. Many restaurants don’t have the best storage conditions, and I’ve had whites that have been served too cold and reds that have been served to warm. Tasting for temperature will tell you if you need to ask for an ice bucket for a bottle of red wine or to have a bottle of white left on the table instead of in the ice bucket.

Manage the wine with dinner. Some people in the restaurant business aren’t going to like me for writing the following. Some won’t like it because it is true. Others won’t like it because they don’t want to be associated with the few bad apples that threaten to spoil the bunch. Ask that the wine glasses be filled no more than halfway, less if the bowl part of the goblet is large. And let the server know that you will pour your own refills. Restaurants make a lot of money on wine sales. The odds are that if the bottle you ordered is emptied before you have finished dining, and the server asks if you’d like to order another bottle, you probably will because your not done eating yet and/or you don’t want to appear cheap. Pouring larger fills and frequently topping off your glass will empty the bottle sooner rather than later. In some instances, the bottle will be kept at a place other than your table. If that is the case you can instruct your server that you’d like the bottle to last you through the first course, the entire dinner, whatever.

Leftover wine. How to deal with wine remaining in the bottle varies from legal jurisdiction to legal jurisdiction. In some places it is pefectly legal for you to re-cork the bottle and take it home with you. After all, you’ve paid for it. But some jurisdictions (Chicago is one) require you to leave the wine behind even though you’ve paid for the entire bottle. It may be helpful for you to know the laws in your area beforehand, which may determine whether or not you order another bottle of wine or not after your first one has been emptied.

An alternative to by the bottle – by the glass. Because wine prices are marked up to the degree they are, buying wine by the glass may be more affordable. But there are some practices to know about with respect to by the glass programs as well. A standard bottle of wine is 750 milliliters, or roughly 25 ounces. A standard pour for a glass of wine is five ounces, which is always the volume given when figuring out how many drinks of alcohol contribute to your blood alcohol level over a certain period of time. Some restaurants will pour more than five ounces, some less. Most – not all, but most – of the glass pricing in restaurants is structured so that after pouring and charging for the first glass, the restaurant breaks even on that particular bottle. Everything else is profit.

Another factor with glass pours is which glass you are getting – the first one after the cork has been pulled or the last one after the bottle has been opened for who knows how long, or a glass of a different wine altogether? It isn’t unreasonable to ask. Ask how long the bottle has been opened. Ask for your glass to be from a new bottle. Ask that the glass be poured at your table rather than in the bar (where you can verify you are getting what you ordered if you have any doubts). With a glass as with a bottle, you can ask for a taste first. You can send a flawed wine back. If after you ask for a taste, you think the red wine is too warm, ask for the bottle to be chilled a bit before your glass if poured. And if the restaurant doesn’t want to afford you the same courtesy is would extend to its bottle-ordering customers, you don’t ever have to go back.

Remember than wine contains alcohol. If you drove your vehicle to the restaurant, that is something to consider. It also let’s you politely inform your server that you would like to have one bottle last throughout all the courses.

Well, that covers a lot of ground, but probably not all of it. If you’ve made it this far, you are probably of the mindset that food is better with wine than without it. And you can best optimize that experience for yourself and others if you are more knowledgeable and comfortable regarding the responsibility of picking up the wine list.

[TrishCT]

That was very interesting for us neophytes.

Thank you Brad!

[JohnL]

I would say that you were pretty thorough here Brad.

One 'trick" I came up with years ago that worked pretty well:

Most restaurants offer wines by the glass. These wines are usually marked up pretty stiffly.

They are usually, however, often decent to good wines that are also available by the bottle--which is usually priced at the low end of the wine list.

I would ask the waiter --or sommelier--that I am interested in ordering a bottle of wine but would like to taste or sample the house red (usually they will oblige with a free sample or taste).

Once you have tasted the wine:

If you like it then you can "safely" order a bottle (which as noted will be fairly inexpensive) or if you do not care for it, you can engage the staff person:

You know, this is ok but I would really like something a bit drier or sweeter or fruitier or richer or... for about the same price--what would you recommend?"

Now both you and the waitstaff have a reference point--you have established a price point you are comfortable with and conveyed the type of wine you might like.

I also found that if the place cares even remotely about wine, they will respond well to being engaged in this manner.

also--one can take the initial experiance further either next time in the restaurant: Say last time I had a bottle of........and I really liked it do you have something similar for maybe a few dollars more etc"

I have found that any decent restaurant staff enjoys helping someone who is interested in their advice and can engage them in a brief dialog rather than make demands or ask for help without providing any idea of what you want. It's a two way street.