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The
Rituals of Wine - Advanced: Nine Tips on Ordering Wine Like a
Professional The restaurant is
the best in town, your guests are seated and the sommelier is
hovering attentively. You have the wine list in your hand and
all eyes are on you. Here are six tips to help you confidently
choose the wine and have a great wine and food experience.
1.
Decide How Many Glasses and How Many Wines
The first consideration is to decide
whether you and your guests want one glass of one wine, or two
or more glasses of the same wine, or two or more glasses of
different wines. The answer to these questions will point you
in different directions in the wine list.
At this point, you should ask your guests
which dishes they will be having and try to choose a wine that
will suit all dishes. If that is not possible, then you may
need to order by the glass.
As a rule of thumb, there are four to five
glasses of wine in a bottle.
If you are going to use the same wine
throughout the meal, or if you have four or more guests, then
you will be looking at the bottle section of the wine list.
Restaurants that are committed to
providing diners with quality and selection will have a large
number of wines by the glass. This means that you can enjoy a
selection of wines throughout the evening. At the very least
you can have a lighter bodied wine with entrée and a more full
bodied wine with main course.
If you are feeling more adventurous, you
can "explore" different wine regions or varieties, or even do
horizontal flights (successive wines of the same vintage from
different producers) made up of the same wine variety.
2. Get
the List
In the ideal situation, the sommelier or
the waiter should hand you the wine list after you are seated.
For some peculiar reason, waiters still seem to hand the wine
list to a male in the group, so if you are female, don't
hesitate to make eye contact and motion with your hand that you
are happy to take the wine list on your table.
In some restaurants, you will be asked
first whether you would like something to drink. This is
usually by way of an aperitif or cocktail. Don't be surprised
by the frequency with which this question is the first you are
asked - drinks are a profit centre for restaurants. If all you
want is wine, and you have not yet been handed the list, then
this is the opportunity to ask for it.
When the waiter hands you the list, ask
whether there are any special wines that evening or whether
there is a wine by the glass section. It is also a good time to
ask the waiter for any suggestions. You can do this if you are
uncertain, but more often than not it is good fun to ask even if
you are an absolute expert. Restaurants have around ten wine
tastings a week with different wine reps, and there is a good
chance that something interesting may have just come in. I
often let the sommelier or wine waiter choose for me - that is,
so long as I am confident that he seems knowledgeable!
When asking for suggestions, now is the
time to tell the waiter of any preferences you may have -
"something big - like a Barossa shiraz" or "I like unwooded
whites - what do you recommend?" The waiter's response will
give you an idea how much he or she knows about wine. If you
find yourself in the hands of an expert, all the better! Go
with what he or she suggests! It keeps you abreast of the other
wines out there.
Ordinarily, a sparking wine is the best if
you are simply having an aperitif before dinner.
3.
Navigate the List
Wine lists are all sorted in one way or
another. The extent of the categorisation depends on the length
of the list. The most common ways in which wine lists are
organised are:
- By wine style,
- By variety, or
- By geographical area.
A good wine list will make it easy for you
to navigate your way around. A list organised by wine style,
for example, will be divided into sparkling, white wines and red
wines. The wines then should set out the name of the wine, the
producer, the region and the vintage year.
A list sorted by grape variety (such as
“Chardonnays” “Semillons” etc) makes it easier to find your
favourite wine type, and will often list other interesting wines
similar to your favourite. So use this classification system to
find your favourite wine type, and then experiment by choosing a
wine listed nearby that you may not have tried before.
This system falls down with many European
wines. French wines, for example, often do not have the variety
as part of the name. “Chablis” may well be a Chardonnay, but
unless it is listed under Chardonnays, you might never know.
This system is also weak where blends are concerned. Again, a
French Bordeaux might be a blend of Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot,
Cabernet Franc and Petit Verdot, but unless it is listed under
“Cabernet Predominant blends” again you might never know.
A list sorted by geographical area would
solve this, but the list has to be sufficiently detailed to
break down “French Wines” into “Bordeaux,” “Burgundy” etc. The
most common way that this is dealt with is under the main
heading “White Wines,” then “French Wines” then “Bordeaux”. The
better lists will keep going into the various appellations.
4. Try
Wine by the Glass
In larger lists, wines by the glass are
set out in a separate section. In other lists, look for a
little glass icon or a separate glass price next to the bottle
price. Try wines by the glass when you are feeling adventurous
or the people on your table are having widely disparate dishes.
The problem that restaurants have is that
a person might order a glass from a bottle, and then no-one else
orders that wine all night. What to do? Restaurants will keep
the bottle – but you should not have to drink wine from a bottle
that has been open for more than 24 hours. Most restaurants
will write the date (and often the time) that the bottle was
opened on the back label. I personally think you are entitled
to add the words, “from a fresh bottle, please” every time you
order by the glass. Any wine that is open for more than 24
hours will lose freshness and start to oxidise. Some
people think wine can be open for longer than 24 hours - I
strongly disagree.
5.
Check the Pricing
Contrary to popular belief, not all wines
in restaurants are expensive. Don’t forget the staff costs
of having the sommelier or waiter there to advise you and the
cost of glassware, storage and service. Having said that,
the truth is that the cheaper wines are marked up with the
highest percentage. The expensive wines are marked up with
the lowest percentage.
Thus you find that you can confidently
order the more expensive wines and usually not be paying such a
high mark up.
6. Make
the Selection
When ordering for other guests, you do
need to be familiar with wine and food pairings that work. With
groups of four or more, try the following techniques:
- Choose wines by the glass to
match each person’s dish, or
- Order two different bottles
of wine that match at least two dishes each, or
- Order a bottle of wine that
can match a wide variety of dishes – say
unwooded whites or a pinot noir.
Sometimes you will find that the wines
have difficult or even unpronounceable names. If the wine list
is numbered, it is absolutely acceptable to order the wine by
the number. You can even phrase it like, “Number 73 looks
interesting… tell me about that one” and put the onus back
onto the waiter to pronounce the name.
7.
Don’t “Check the Cork”
You often see waiters pulling the cork and
then smelling it before pouring the wine. On the rare occasion
the cork may be presented to you to sniff.
This is nonsense.
You cannot tell a corked wine by smelling
the cork. The cork is just going to smell of … cork.
Similarly, the fact that wine may have leaked around the side of
the cork does not definitively mean there is something wrong
with the wine. The only way to tell the condition of the wine
is to taste it.
When the waiter is opening the bottle, the
best thing to do is to simply ignore him and let him get on with
it. If the waiter breaks the cork, you do not have to do
anything – it is up to him or her to deal with it.
8. Do
Check the Wine
You should be poured a small portion of
wine to taste. The waiter will not pour the rest of the wine
until you have tasted the wine and given your permission to pour
the other glasses. Many wine professionals these days simply
smell the wine without tasting it. If it smells clean and does
not smell corked, they will then simply nod to indicate that the
rest of the wine can be poured. If it smells bad, you don’t
have to taste it, although I almost always do – just to be
sure. Here’s a quick list of the most common reasons to send a
wine back:
- The wine is “corked” – smells of
wet cardboard and tastes flat and dull with no fruit flavour.
- “Volatile Acidity” (“VA”) –
smells of vinegar and tastes flat with no fruit flavour.
- “Oxidised” – flat and dull aroma
with no fruit flavour. This is most commonly encountered when
ordering wine by the glass when the bottle has been open for a
day or more. If this happens, ask for a glass from a fresh
bottle.
9. Feel
Free to Refill Glasses Yourself
There is no rule that says that you cannot
refill the glasses yourself from the bottle on the table. In an
ideal world, the waiter will have done this for you, but your
enjoyment is more important and so if you want you glass filled,
then it is perfectly acceptable to do it yourself.
Conclusion
These simple guidelines will guide you
through even the most intimidating wine lists. Remember, the
whole point of the restaurant is to give you the customer the
ultimate dining experience, so never feel intimidated by lengthy
lists, or sommeliers – they especially are there to help you!
Ben Killerby
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