What to do if you have no idea what wine to order at a restaurant.
The first rule is to stay calm! Your server can smell fear and will try to up-sell you. Reading wine lists can be stressful, and some are intentionally created to overwhelm you. You are going to be OK!
Look through the list. How is it organized? By wine type, or by country, or some other manner? Find a wine, or region, that you are familiar with and then look for one you have enjoyed before or at least heard of. Picking wines is kind of like voting when you don’t know any of the candidates. (you wouldn’t do that would you?) Which is why advertising is so important. Maybe you don’t know the person (or wine) but if you have at least seen the name before then you are more likely to pick that wine (or person).
The next rule is to be bold. Own the moment. Hopefully you have a server that asks you if you have any questions. Say that you do. You would like some help picking the wine. He or she might instantly have a few favorites. Feel free to pick one of their suggestions, or tell the server a few wines you have had before. Ask if the restaurant has anything similar to those. At this point you will learn if the server really knows anything about wine. If you get the stone-cold face that conveys they are stumped then you may be out of luck. At this point revert to the by the glass offerings. At least you won’t be on the hook for a lot of money. If you like the glass then great. If not, then move on to something else.
Don’t be unreasonable. Don’t tell your server you recently had Opus One at a friend’s house and you want something like it for under $30. Those wines don’t exist. Don’t ask for them. You are telling your server you like big, bold, flashy things but don’t want to pay for them They will not like you and you may not get the best service the rest of the night because they will be afraid you are a bad tipper. (Side note, ALWAYS be a good tipper, it generates good karma)
My best advice is to wait until you know what everyone at the table is going to order for their entrees. Then say this to your server, “We’d like a bottle that will go with our dinner as much as possible and be around this much” while you are pointing to a price on the wine list. This way you aren’t broadcasting to the table how much you are spending.
The goal is to order the perfect wine that pairs well with your food. You eat, drink and laugh and have an all around good evening.
The next blog will cover what to do after the server brings the bottle to the table.
Always the Wine Guy 