Wine & Dine

by Mark R. Vogel

Ordering wine in a fine restaurant can be intimidating and confusing to say the least. Perusing a typical wine list can be as daunting as the instructions of a do-it-yourself project.

There are three variables that may work for or against you in achieving your goal: the wine list itself, the restaurant staff, and your own level of expertise.

The key elements of a wine list are the extent of its selections, the manner in which it's organized, and the prices. Generally speaking, the fancier and more expensive the establishment, the larger the wine list.

While a more comprehensive list provides greater choices, it simultaneously offers greater confusion. Instead of there being one Chianti in your price range, now there are seven. Which one do you choose?

Suddenly price alone is not an effective discriminator. This is where your own expertise, or if you're not that savvy about wine, your willingness to seek guidance from the staff comes into play.

How the list is organized will determine its user-friendliness. Most lists are first divided into red and white wines. If the list is more extensive there may also be sections for champagnes, dessert wines, or ports.

Unless it's a small list, the red and white sections will be further subdivided into countries, e.g., American reds, American whites, French reds, French whites, etc.

A thorough list should contain: 1) the name of each wine and/or the producer, 2) the vintage, and 3) the price. The name of the wine and who produced it are not always one in the same.

French wines for example are often named after where they are made, not who made them. The wine list may contain a Pommard, (a specific village in Burgundy), but any of hundreds of producers, with varying degrees of skill, could have made the actual wine.