Finding Value on a Wine List

You're in a restaurant. The wines are priced all over the place. You'd like to find an excellent wine without paying a massive price for it. How can you do this unless you actually know all the wines and know how they should be priced?

Often, it's not as difficult as you might think. Start by eliminating all the names you really know unless you just so happen to find the wine you really want in which case this exercise is pointless. Typically, the wines that people really know fall into that category because they show up on everyone's wine list. And, they are there on everyone's list because restaurants can move them. So, they don't need to price them really well.

Next, eliminate every wine from regions that are familiar to you. Chances are, if they are familiar to you, they are familiar to lots of customers and people tend to buy what is familiar. So, in particular, if you are in the US, start out by eliminating wines that say Napa or Sonoma. Even where they are not overpriced at retail, they move so easily in restaurants that the markups on them tend to be higher. Skip them.

Now let's get annoying. Eliminate every grape that you are really familiar with . So, let's throw in the wine list trash bin every wine called Chardonnay, Sauvignon Blanc, Pinot Grigio, Pinot Noir, Merlot, and Cabernet Sauvignon. The exception is that if the wine is from a country that is obscure for wine or from a wine region that very few people have ever heard of, you can put it back on.

Since you have now gotten rid of 90% of the wine list, the rest should be easy, at least if you know just enough about the grapes and the regions to have an idea on pairing. If you're not sure, it's often worthwhile to associate the food you are having with a geography and to choose a wine from the same geography. In other words, try Italian wine with Italian food.

At this point, as well, it's not against the rules to ask your server to describe a wine. Hopefully they know. If there is a wine that is available by the glass, perhaps they will offer you a taste before you select a bottle.

Where did I come up with this method? Experimentation. A particular bartender who happens to be a wine person remarked to me last week that I choose all the wines that nobody else does and that he can't understand why nobody chooses them. The fact is that people don't choose them because people don't know them. And, because restaurants, at least initially, cannot move them as quickly, they mark them up less. And, for you, the customer, that's a good thing.