Ordering What You Like

If you've been a regular reader here, hopefully you've learned quite a bit about a variety of things wine. Unfortunately, an awful lot of what you've learned doesn't help you when it comes to perusing a wine list. So, you are at a new restaurant and you look at the wines they offer and you don't recognize a single one. How does that happen? What do you do?

Perhaps there is nothing on the list that says Chardonnay or Merlot or Malbec. There's undoubtedly nothing that says tannic or acidic and it's unlikely there is anything that says oaky or citrusy. So, you're stuck. But should you be?

Recall that when we took our 16-day tour through Napa Valley, we did learn that each American Viticultural Area within Napa Valley produces wines that have their own characteristics in common. So, if you saw Rutherford AVA red wine, while you might not know exactly what it is in it, you could guess. You might guess that these would be Bordeaux-style grapes in a structured, balanced wine with the characteristic "Rutherford dust." That still won't tell you if you like it, but it should give you a hint.

Some people swear by Vivino and other similar apps. I don't. To some extent, it's built on a crows-sourcing basis. So, you might see that people who liked the 2017 Chateau Poo Poo also liked the the 2015 Domaine Pee Pee. 

But, when did they like them? You've learned over the last 11 months (yes, it will be 11 months tomorrow) that wines evolve as they mature. You've learned that different wines taste differently depending on what you are eating with them. Maybe the people who like the 2017 Poo Poo liked it because of its manure-like earthiness and you liked the 2015 Pee pee for its racy acidity. Their reviews do you no good.

Most wine lists at restaurants that carry other than the very standard fare on their wine lists are good enough to tell you where they come from. Puglia. Margaret River. Languedoc. Western Cape. Those are clues. And, those clues are likely more telling than pretty much anything you will get from one app or another.

Learn the places of origin of wines that you like. This, combined with the grapes and blends that you like will probably give you a better guide than anything else. And, since it has worked for me, soon we will have similar knowledge and you will be able to take over my blog when I run out of things to write about.

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