Hey, Kristi. This is Catherine, long time listener, first time caller, and I need your help. Every time I'm handed a wine list, I freeze. I don't wanna pick the wrong bottle, waste money, or look clueless. How do I choose with confidence instead of with panic?
Kristi Mayfield (00:17)
Can you relate to Catherine's wine list fear? And if so, you're shaking your head yes, you are one of thousands of other wine lovers just like you. Wine lists can be complicated, they can be confusing, they can be frustrating, and yes, they can be scary. So in today's episode, you're going to learn tips and tricks so that you can turn your wine list fear into wine list fun. So let's go ahead and get started.
Now, let's say you and I are sitting down at dinner or at our favorite wine bar and just getting ready to have a glass of wine together. Now, you know that I'm a wine educator and might be tempted to just push that wine list my direction and ask or expect me to make the pick for us. And that's totally understandable. This actually does happen all the time. And you want to know my candid reaction?
I have the same insecurities as you. I have the same guttural reaction as you do. What if I pick something that nobody else likes? What if I can't actually decode the wine list to find the right bottle? Should I just recommend everybody get something by the glass so that I can avoid making a decision at all or selecting a bottle that isn't perfect? mean, wine is supposed to be fun, isn't it?
Would you agree it's supposed to enhance our meal? It's supposed to enhance our experiences, enhance the conversation or any event. But the feelings of wine list fear are real. Even to me, even with the amount of certifications, education, constantly sticking my nose in a wine book, I too can relate to how wine lists can make us feel. But why do they create this massive anxiety?
Well, in today's episode, we're going to break down some frequent ways that wine lists are actually constructed. And I'm going to share with you some tips and tricks so you can know how to tackle each style. So you'll walk away with this whole new confidence. So the next time you're handed a wine list, you're going to grab it, you're going to open it up and you are going to take the lead because you have learned how to pick the
perfect bottle for any and all scenarios. Now you're likely thinking, okay, Christie, but just give me the down low. How do I quickly decode any restaurant blindness without feeling lost or feeling embarrassed or in my case, annoying everybody because it takes so long for me to make a decision. Is there any possible way to avoid that 10 minute or longer sheer panic mode to get to
the decision. Can you confidently move past it? Or do you need to just leverage the safe bet, the one wine you always fall back to, or even worse, order a cocktail? Want to know the good news? You can absolutely get past the fear. Yes, it is possible. Now, let's get
back to restaurants themselves. I mean, they create these wine lists because they want to provide a great experience. They want to have a diversity of wines on their list. They want to give you exciting, interesting finds, some that you might not ever have heard of. But they are typically created using one of three common structures. The first could be by color or variety. The second by region.
And the third could be by sort of a style or a theme. So let's get started on lists that are created by using a color, red, white, rosé, and let's toss sparkling wines in there, or a varietal such as Merlot, Sauvignon Blanc. Now, the clue number one is if they are organized by color.
they are likely going to be organized with the lightest wines at the top of the list, moving down to the boldest, biggest, richest wines of that color at the bottom.
the next level of organization may be by alphabetical order, producer, or region. And I get it. I have just told you like six different structures within the color and varietal style of organization. So how do you then decode that? We're gonna get to that in a moment. But the next way I wanna talk about wine lists being organized is by region.
And this requires you have some kind of general knowledge of regions. But don't fear, I'm not actually talking about specific wine regions and that encyclopedic knowledge of which varietals, which winemaking rules and regulations. I'm literally talking about elementary school geography. Once again, within this style of organization, you may see the wines listed by alphabetical order, producers,
lines within specific producers, because they may have three or four from a singular producer, or they could be bivariate or grape within that region. So you're still talking about a region. And again, we'll break down some common ways to decode that. But the third most common structure for creating wine lists is by theme or by style. Now, remember,
In WineWise, we use three simple styles of white wine and three simple styles of red wine. White, fresh and crisp, funky and floral, rich and creamy. And for reds, fresh and fruity, dry and dirty, and packed with a punch. So I highly recommend going back and listening to episodes four and episodes five where we break down these three white wine and three red wine styles
to make your wine selections super simple. Now let's get down to decoding these lists. I am going to provide you with my top five tips to break down and decode any wine list. Now the first one may seem fairly obvious, but I use it all the time and it's to be prepared. Just the same way as you researched that restaurant, whether you got
reviews from friends or you Googled them and got reviews on their website, you probably peeked at their menu. Well, a lot of establishments will put their wine list on their websites as well. So use it, review it, get to know the types of wines that this restaurant or wine bar is presenting. Now it's not necessarily to actually pick the wine at that moment because...
That's gonna depend on what foods and hey, they may have specials which could be even more enticing. But it's really to familiarize yourself with what types of wines you're going to see and experience when you get there. So be prepared. Number two, know the general style of wine you think you might enjoy. Whether it's a red or a white or you think of a specific varietal that you've been craving,
Knowing that style from the three styles of white wines and three styles of red wines can help you narrow down that list quite a bit. And if you're thinking about, my gosh, what if I don't know any of the wines? You can look always at the regions and cool climate regions as we know are going to have fruity or high acid wines. And again, if this doesn't make sense, go back and listen to episodes four and five.
And warmer regions are going to give you bigger, bolder, more high alcohol wines. They're going to be richer. They're going to often be creamier on the white wine side. They're going to be potentially jammy or have higher tannins, higher alcohol, and just be bigger and bolder on the red wine side. So you can definitely use those styles to get you to option number two of picking the style of wine that you're going to prefer that night. Number three.
This is so important, define your budget and stick with it. You've obviously made a choice to go out to dinner, to go out to that wine bar, so you know that you are going to be paying a markup on that wine versus picking that food up, taking it home and drinking a wine that you bought at your favorite wine shop or that you've simply had and been storing for the right reason. You're going to pay more. However, you still have a budget. You can still be
budget conscious because you simply don't want to overpay for the wine. And some wines on that list will likely have a much higher markup than others. So what do you do? How do you scour that list to see which wines you're paying maybe a hundred percent markup or 10 times more than that so that you can really get a fair deal on the wine you select that night? What do you do instead?
There's rumors out there that the number two wine on the list is always going to have the highest markup, but all the studies have actually proven that's not necessarily true. But you can use this information to kind of guide you. One of the constructs of wine lists from a pricing perspective is called the inverted U pattern. Now, I actually, it's not really inverted. It's really more like a C where the wines at the top of the list
And the bottom of the list are going to be the ones that have the smallest markup. But those in the middle, so at the fattest point of the list, the ones that are around that median, and if you think about math, there's average and then there's median. If there's a couple of wines in the $30 range and a couple of wines at the $60 range, but most of them fall in the 40s or 50s, that's the median area.
those likely have the biggest farcups. Okay? So that's the inverted U. Now, some restaurant strategies that can come in helpful are that restaurants may intentionally price certain wines lower because they want to encourage diners, including yourself, to try them.
even if they're not necessarily the cheapest wines on the list. So they may use a lower markup because they really want to promote those particular wines. And a graduated markup, which I'm seeing more and more of, is when restaurants or establishments take their lowest price bucket of wines, so the average wines in that area, and put a certain markup on those. And then the higher the price of wines, they will
put a lower percentage markup. So wines under $50 may have 100 % markup, wines 50 to 75 may have a 60 % markup, and then wines above 75 may only have a 50 % markup. So that's what graduated markup means. But before you go to a restaurant, here's what I love to do. And it's probably because I'm a super nerd, but I do like to get a good value out of the wines that I'm ordering. Go to that list.
online like we talked about and pick a couple of bottles that may be interesting, just two or three will do. And then Google those wines online and ask for the average retail price of each of those bottles. Then compare that with the price that the restaurant's charging. And you can see kind of what their markup procedures look like. Okay, super simple. So do a little sleuthing. Now the number four thing that I always recommend
if all else fails. And some restaurants provide a fabulous suggested pairing. So they'll have the menu item and they'll have a suggested wine pairing below that. So often these can be a really great value. A lot of times they can be lesser known wines that you might never have been familiar with. So it gives you an opportunity to really explore. And they typically are going to be a fairly safe bet because
The restaurant is promoting them. They've obviously worked with their beverage program and their food program, the chef, to find wines that aren't necessarily going to maybe wow you, but they're gonna be a really, really good pairing with the meal that you select.
However, there is always a caveat. So there's a buyer beware here. Sometimes those wines are wines that they're just trying to clear from their inventory. They're not moving otherwise. So by putting them on that suggested pairing list, they can draw you in. Now, again, there's no right or wrong here. If it sounds exciting and sounds like something that you would like and it's a suggested pairing, again, this is a pretty safe bet.
And you may just find a hidden gem which can offer you a really great experience, something you've never tried before. And most likely it's not something that's going to break your budget. So it could be a wine that's going to deliver you a great value for the experience. Now the fifth and final recommendation is if all else fails, choose a wine off the per glass list. Don't be afraid to ask even for
sample taste. Most restaurants would much rather pour you one ounce so you can try wine than pouring that full eight ounce glass and having you decide you can't stand it. So don't be afraid to ask for just a little taste but please don't ask for a taste of every single white wine on there by the glass list. Beware that you may be paying slightly more for that glass
because if you're the only one who orders from that bottle and the rest of the bottle goes bad, the restaurant has to kind of cover the margins on it, which is totally fair. But if you understand what their pour size is, so if you're paying $15 for that glass and it's a five ounce pour, the restaurant can actually get five, five ounce pours.
because the average bottle of 750 milliliters is just over 25 ounces. However, if it's an eight ounce pour, they can only get around three glasses per bottle. So it's fairly simple math and that's a way that you can gauge the buy the glass price because more than likely that same bottle of wine is going to be on their bottle menu list as well. So these are five.
Simple tips that you can start implementing tonight when you go out to dinner or meet your friend at the wine bar. And it's going to change the game on your ways of looking at wine lists. Fear not my friend, you've got this. But what if you are entertaining or hosting?
a larger group. So it's not just you and your spouse or partner, not just you and a couple of friends. This is a business meal or a large group. Our common nature as human beings is we want to please everyone, but finding the perfect bottle that's going to make everybody happy is a probability of slim to none. So be prepared to pick
a couple of bottles in order to find that happy place where everybody's going to find something that they enjoy. So let's start off and assume we need to pick a red and a white, and that's a really safe bet. But with white wines, it's important to find a wine, what I would call in the middle ground. It's something that's not going to be too tart and acidic. It's not going to be too
rich or creamy, something right in the middle. Now, I'm going to surprise you, possibly, when I toss out one of the traditional selections that can be a great option in a group setting, and it is Chardonnay. Now, toss out all your preconceived notions.
As we talked about with Bibiana in the Chardonnay episode, not all Chardonnays are created equally. And you will likely find if you look right in the middle of the Chardonnay list, or you look for a region that's a little cooler, something like a Russian River Valley or Burgundy, where you're gonna find a really beautiful, bright and fresh, but not overly tart.
and definitely not over extracted and manipulated vanilla butter balm. So Chardonnay is a great palette pleaser, but other palette pleaser's include Vionier, Sauvignon Blanc, and some other white blends. I particularly think Bordeaux Blanc, which is a blend of Sauvignon Blanc, Simeon and Muscadil is a fantastic super friendly and people friendly option. So sticking in the middle ground.
And with reds, again, avoid those extremes. Find that happy middle ground, which includes wines like Pinot Noir, Merlot, Grenache, and some red blends that aren't really overly oaked or overly high in tannins or alcohol. It would be hard for anybody at the table to argue with their food friendliness. So let's say that you are going to implement all of the information
you've gained in this episode. But at the end of the day, you go out tonight and you order a bottle and you just don't like it at all. What do you do? Can you send it back? This is a tough call. Now, if you made the selection based upon the information we've shared and the wine itself isn't faulty, it's just not what you were looking for. Technically.
It's not the restaurant's responsibility to take it back and remove it from your bill. However, most restaurants want you to have an amazing and great experience. And they know that the wrong line can change that. And it can reflect poorly on them, even if they didn't play a single hand in you making that selection. So it is completely acceptable for you to share with your server.
that the wine isn't necessarily what you expected. And then kind of let them take the lead on what happens next. So this is where every restaurant's policies are going to come into play and they're going to be different. And it's impossible for me to guide you with 100 % clarity on what the ultimate outcome of that situation will be. But be kind to your server. Be open to the conversation and be understanding if they simply cannot return that bottle.
If you have that great conversation, there's bound to be some kind of resolution. And maybe that establishment will give you a significant discount off another bottle if they can't remove it from your bill, or maybe they'll give you a wine by the glass. I can't predict, but what I can say is that if you're kind and friendly and open to the conversation, you'll likely both end up with a solution. That's a win-win for both of you. So in summary,
You are now totally prepared to tackle any wine list. You now know how you can avoid those awkward silences and awkward lengthy moments of indecision in the first place without fear taking over and being able to order a wine that you're going to love. You don't necessarily have to just recognize a name and you do not
If you get overwhelmed, need to divert to a gin and tonic because you simply wanted an amazing wine and you let fear take over. You now are equipped to enhance that dining experience. So let's summarize the game-changing tips for you to use to conquer any wine list now that you are informed. you've determined how the list is actually structured. We've talked about
being structured by color, varietal, rigid style, et cetera. And once you've taken that quick snapshot and you should be able to make that analysis within moments, you need to look for your clues, okay? And this is where the fun comes in. Even if you don't recognize a single brand, a single label on that line list, you can start to down select red, white, sparkling, rosé,
What style? Fresh and crisp white versus a rich and creamy white, a fruity or packed with a punch red. So using these clues, you can start to narrow down the wines on the list that might be of interest to you. And using those further clues like cool climate equals higher acidity. Warm climate is going to be bigger, bolder, more high alcohol wines. Those clues can help you narrow it down even further. Defining your
budget is so key, stick to it. Don't feel like you have to spend more than you want to spend on a bottle of wine. And don't be afraid to ask if you go with the buy the glass option. So wines by the glass, again, there's less of a commitment. You're getting a glass versus a bottle and every wine list is going to have some great options to go with your meal. So don't be afraid to ask if you can taste it first, but again, stick with one or two tastes.
at most and find the one that you prefer. This will give you a little bit more of a limited selection, but it's also going to allow you if you want to have a white wine with your salad and a red wine with your meal, gives you all of that flexibility. Next, we talked about restaurant pairings. If a restaurant has wine selections paired on their menu, these are great options to try or
If all else fails, there is no shame in asking your server, your bartender or the sommelier for a recommendation. It is their job to know the wines on that list. And most importantly, they're with their customers all day.
every day. So they've gotten great feedback on all the wines on the list from their customers so they can really tell you what their customers say about each of those wines and be super candid because they do know at the end of the day, a bad experience could negatively impact what you're willing to tip them at the end of the night. So they're going to be fair and they're going to be candid, but above all else have fun.
Wine is an adventure and the more fun you have in that adventure, the more you're going to enjoy every single wine list that's put in front of you without fear.
So if you liked today's show, share this episode with your friends that you'd love to go to dinner with or share a glass of wine with They'll thank you for enlightening them on the ways in which they too can take the fear out of wine lists and create their own magical wine journey. And if you're ready to take that next step with WineWise and Everyday Sommelier, head on over to my website, EverydaySommelierPodcast.com.
and join our insider list where you're going to gain access to tools, tips, and insights to break down wine into simple, easy to digest morsels rather than complex encyclopedic lectures online. And join us for the next episode where we're going to kick off a series of episodes to help you understand the science and relationship between food flavors and wines. It's definitely a series you're not going to want to miss. So see you next time and until then, cheers to Learning Wine your way.