Does Your Favorite Restaurant Care About Its Wine (Moving Upscale Edition)?

Tonight, you're going out for a nice dinner. You've chosen a nice restaurant and you'd like to have a good selection of wine to choose from as well as an excellent wine experience. What we're not talking about here is award-winning wine service and wine list, but this is going to be a pricey evening and you have the reasonable expectation that the wine will improve your experience.

Let's start with the by-the-glass list. After all, not every couple has the same tastes in wine and not every couple will order dishes that are complemented by the same types of wine. So, what should that by-the-glass list look like? To me, and this depends a bit on the size of the restaurant and the volume of business they do (a restaurant that seats 30 just cannot have as big a by-the-glass list as a restaurant that seats 300), you should be able to break the list into about a half dozen categories and the list should have two to three in each category. What I'm talking about here are, for example, sparkling, blush/rose, light-bodied white, full-bodied white, light-to-medium-bodied red, fuller-bodied red, and dessert. And, within each of those groups, there should be two (or more) styles or price points. This will give every diner a chance to find something they can enjoy.

Then we move to the bottle list. The bottle list should have some sort of organization to it so that the diner does not have to work to figure out what they would like to drink. Such organization might be separate lists for sparkling, white, red, and dessert, preferably with further breakdown in each of those categories. So, we might see the reds organized from lightest-bodied to fulles-bodied, by varietal, by region, or some combination of those. 

At a restaurant of this level, each selection should be accompanied by its vintage. In today's world of technology and the ability to maintain and update a list easily, there is rarely an excuse for being served the wrong vintage. While I know I might be at the extreme, my mouth would be watering had I ordered a 2010 Brunello di Montalcino, but I would be sorely disappointed when a 2009 appeared. Yes, I know, fine wine is supposed to improve with age, but it is unlikely an 09 will ever improve enough to match a 10 Brunello. 2010 was simply one of the finest vintages of all time for Brunello and 2009 was just okay. At a restaurant of this level, servers should be trained to handle situations like this. 

Here's an real-life example of handling properly. Out to dinner in about 2003, I ordered a 1996 Pouilly Fuisse (a white Burgundy, therefore Chardonnay). The server brought out the bottle -- a 1997. (Wine Spectator rated the 1996 vintage 94 points and the 1997 vintage 88 points, so the difference was likely to be very significant.) I noted the difference. He apologized and asked if his manager could come to the table. I agreed. The manager noted the difference and pointed on the wine list to a 1996 Puligny-Montrachet (a noticeable step up) and asked if that would suffice at the same price as the Pouilly Fuisse had been offered. 

That's an outstanding way to handle this issue.

The wine list should have diversity. If you see a dozen different wines from the same winery, then the restaurant gor a deal on something. Maybe you don't like that winery. 

There should also be diversity in style. So, for example, some of the Chardonnay should be oaked, and some unoaked. Some should have gone through malolactic fermentation (producing buttery notes) and some should not have. Some Pinot Noir should be very fruity while others should have more spice. 

More than one region should be represented unless the restaurant is built on a particular region (for example, in a Spanish restaurant, you might reasonably expect only Spanish wines). Even in a restaurant featuring the food of a particular country, e.g., Italy, you might reasonable expect wines from the north, south, and central parts of the country.

The list should complement the menu. At a steakhouse, expect the list to be overloaded with bigger, bolder red wines. At a seafood restaurant, expect a variety of whites and lighter reds.

And, prices should grade nicely. If, for example, you see the list of Cabernets priced at $30, $35, $40, $50, $60, $75, $150, $175, and $200, that's not quite right. There is a noticeable gap in there. But had they found two wines to slot in between 75 and 150, they would have solved that problem.

Service need not be spectacular, but it should demonstrate training of servers. Appropriate glasses should be used and for more expensive wines, higher-end glasses. The wine should be properly presented. The server should expect that the person who ordered the wine will aprove it for opening (this can be done with either a visual or verbal cue). The cork should be pulled properly and without damage (if the bottle is particularly old, this may be an unreasonable expectation even for the finest sommelier, but a server should have no problem with the wines we are talking about here rarely as much as 10 years old). During the uncorking, the label should continue to be presented.

Unless specified otherwise, the person who ordered the wine should inspect and taste the wine. A small pour should be given. The wine should be at an appropriate temperature. Upon a cue that the wine is not somehow tainted (not liking it as much as you expected you would is not a taint), the server should then pour, clockwise from the person who tasted and ladies before gentlemen and ending with the person (male or female) that ordered the wine, smallish servings of the wine. The wine is there to savor, not to guzzle, and there is no need to overpour when a bottle has been ordered. Particularly for heavier wines, decanting should be offered. Decanting, if requested, should be done properly. I've seen a lot of servers who think it is proper to abuse the wine by shaking the decanter so hard that one would think a cyclone had appeared. Just decant the wine. It will breathe nicely. 

Finally, we come to the knowledge of the servers. Your server is not expected to be a wine expert. But, where the restaurant has this level of wine service, they should be knowledgeable about the wines on the list. So, for example, if you ask them about a particular wine on the list, they should be able to give you the basics on that bottle and perhaps their impressions of it or the feedback they have gotten from other guests.

Since I included a few paragraphs ago a story that illustrates how a server (and manager) can do things really right, let's end with a little story about how they can get it wrong.

We were out for a special occasion at a white-tablecloth restaurant with a very nice wine list (probably one that would qualify for a Wine Spectator Award of Excellence (but not a Best of or Grand Award) if they applied). I ordered a very nice bottle of a Syrah-based Rhone blend from a little-known, but quite remarkable winery known for its Rhone-style red wines (by the way, the wine was spectacular). The server had at his disposal a collection of Riedel stemware from both the Vinum series and the Sommelier series (the Sommelier series are roughly twice the size and have more carefully curved rims to better direct the wines on the palate). He served our wine in the Vinum series and remarked that he does not like the look of the glass being so empty that you get when you use the better glasses. 

Hmm.