The Freedom of a Beverage and Wine Manager

When you go into a restaurant -- not one with a really expansive wine list -- with a normal, perhaps 20-item wine list, you can immediately tell something about the person -- usually a wine manager or beverage manager -- who built the wine list. You can tell if they are trying to show off the restaurant's food. You can tell if they are just trying to move wine independent of the food. And, you can tell if they are beholden to one distributor who really has leverage on them.

What does that last one mean? For whatever reason, the restaurant is only working with one distributor. And, there are a few labels that the wine manager really wants. The distributor can sense it and says something like, "You know what; I'll get you a case of [insert name of red blend that wine manager wants] and a case of [insert name of Chardonnay wine manager wants], but you need to take some of this crap, some of this swill, and some of these two other wines that nobody likes off my hands. So, the wine list will be littered with truly bizarre wines that have nothing to do with the food or the theme of the restaurant.

Imagine a steakhouse with more Chardonnay on its list than anything else. Or, to the contrary, consider a place that features fresh seafood and a wine list that is loaded up with cheap Cabernet. Some things just don't work and frankly, if you have to fill your list with wines that don't work at all with the food, why bother to serve wine at all?

Last night was an entirely different experience. Celebrating, we were at a restaurant that goes through a complete menu overhaul every three months and therefore, it has a revamped beverage menu, including wine, every 3 months. Currently, the featured food is Filipino.

The wine industry in The Phillippines is not large. Almost all of the wine consumed there, at least that that is of any quality at all, is imported from a combination of Australia and New Zealand, Europe, and the US. So, you just can't say that the wine list will be filled with local wines.

What might a sommelier do? The wine manager at this restaurant looked at the underlying influences in the food. Populated primarily by a combination of people with east Asian heritage and people with Spanish heritage, Filipino food reflects both. And, there was his clue. His wine list to go with the food of this area is dominated by wine from the Iberian Peninsula -- mostly Spain and a bit of Portugal.

The foods here are varied, but loaded with spices and herbs. The natural acidity of many of the Iberian wines makes them food-friendly and able to handle diverse menus.

How does this wine manager do it? He doesn't succumb to the whims of his distributors. What he does instead is say here is what I am looking for and he has no need to take the trendy popular wines. He wants wines that will show off his foods and they don't have to be anything that anyone else has ever heard of. These are wines that the distributors would love to sell more of, but most restaurants don't want and therefore, they are happy to move.

This gives the wine manager all the freedom he needs to construct wine lists quarterly to show off the wonderful food. And when he has that freedom and uses it, the clientele wins.