How to Navigate a Wine List

You sit down at a restaurant, and you’re handed a wine list. What should you look for to choose your wine? Do you ask the server? Sommelier and Vice President of Food & Beverage Andy Chabot offers his advice for navigating a wine list, ordering, and trying new wines.

While I relish the opportunity to sit and read a great wine list, I realize that for many people being handed a wine list is a frightening and daunting moment. You don’t want to order the wrong thing, be talked into ordering something way outside your price range, or maybe you just don’t know how to decipher the thing. Relax, it’s going to be ok. After all, wine and food should be enjoyable and fun.

I always recommend asking for the sommelier if the restaurant has one. If so, I pretty much close the list and ask the sommelier to help me find a bottle. I let them know other wines that I’ve liked (this indicates both style and price point that I’m comfortable with) and what I’m thinking about eating. I also often ask them to help me find something that they’re excited about and showcases their program best. I ask them to surprise me (just not with the bill!). Then I unleash them. I have been let down way more times by my own choice off of a list than by that of the sommelier’s recommendation.

If you’re at a place that does not have a sommelier, then do your best to find a solid wine. I always argue for the grape Grenache. I think it’s a win almost every time from a food pairing perspective. If you don’t know the grape, you may have heard it or seen it as Cotes du Rhone from France. In truth the grape grows (and likely originated) all over the Mediterranean areas from Spain through Southern France. Now it grows in many places around the world, but I continue to be drawn to the wines of the southern Rhone Valley, generically called Cotes du Rhone. It’s hard to beat the value that they pack. They are spicy and hearty, yet elegant, wines that go with most foods.

Lastly, if you’re in a restaurant that doesn’t have good wine storage (are all the bottles displayed on shelves behind the bar and not in temperature control?) then know that the wine experience isn’t going to be a life changing one. In cases like this, I gravitate toward simpler white wines that are kept in the fridge. They’ll be cold and refreshing, and sometimes that’s all you need. The red wines served warm (most ambient room temps in restaurants are in the mid 70’s) will seem out of balance showing more alcohol and less fruit and acidity. You can either ask them to chill the red down for you in an ice bucket or stick to the white wines that you like.

Andy Chabot, Director of Food and Beverage