11 Ways to Master the Wine List
(photo: Paul Kooiman/Gallery Stock)
Do you know what a Coravin is? How about if a bottle is “lightstruck”? (And if that’s a good thing?) These days, ordering wine when dining out requires a whole new language. Here’s a crash course in speaking fluently with a sommelier.
1. Go by the glass. There’s never been a better selection.
How much would you pay for a solo serving? What if it’s from a bottle that never would have been opened for individual pours? The Coravin, a device that uses a needle to pump neutral gas through a cork, extracting wine (the remainder can continue to age for months or years), is making these questions more pressing at restaurants like Eleven Madison Park in New York City, L'Espalier in Boston, and Press Club in San Francisco, which added a 1998 Pomerol Château La Conseillante to its by-the-glass list for $95. A magnum retails for about $600.
• • •
2. Head for the hills.
(photo: Chris Gorman)
“Some of my favorite wines are alpine wines,” says Amanda Smeltz, wine director atRoberta’s Pizza and Blanca in Brooklyn. At higher altitudes, growing conditions often favor less alcohol and more acidity, making wine more food-friendly. “The whites tend to be potent in aromatics,” she says. “The reds have a fascinating smoky character.” Smeltz recommends the La Mourzière Humagne Rouge 2012, from Cave Calòz in Valais, Switzerland, and the Domaine de Montbourgeau 2011 L'Etoile Savagnin (left), from France.
• • •
3. Be skeptical of Sancerre. Be picky about Pinot Grigio.
(photo: Chris Gorman)
Sancerre and Pinot Grigio are trendy because both are neutral, appealing by offending no one. Restaurants charge above the usual markups for Sancerre because customers will pay it, and wineries know that Pinot Grigio will sell regardless of quality. Consequently, according to David Weitzenhoffer, founder ofA.I. Selections, a New York City–based importer, “many producers have given up trying to excel with this grape,” growing too much of it per acre (diluting the end product) or planting it where it doesn’t grow well.
TWO TO TRY: The Cantina Bolzano Pinot Grigio 2013 has notes of pear, honey, and almond; there’s lemon peel, yellow plum, and smoke in the Gérard Boulay Clos de Beaujeu Sancerre 2013 (left).
• • •
4. Watch out for cooking and lightstriking!
Now that screw tops have solved the problem of corked wines, two issues remain. According to Lelañea Fulton, the wine director at Dirty French in New York, bottles can be “cooked” from being stored too hot, creating a stewed-fruit aroma. Or they can be “lightstruck” if the glass is too light, causing what Fulton describes as “a funky, skunky smell, like weed from Mendocino County” (hence the cellophane wrapping around an Italian sparkling wine like Ca'del Bosco Cuvee Prestige Franciacorta).
• • •
5. Introduce yourself to the neighbours.
Take any “It” region and you’ll likely find nearby makers producing excellent—and cheaper—wines. “There could be a producer in Puligny-Montrachet who’s renowned for his Chardonnay,” says Michael Muser, general manager at Grace, in Chicago, which has a French-focused selection. “But because it’s Puligny, it’s going to be expensive. If the same producer made a wine in Mâcon, it might be a value.” (Try the Les Héritiers du Comte Lafon Mâcon-Uchizy Les Maranches 2013. Dominique Lafon bought vineyards there despite already owning century-old ones in areas near Puligny.) Here are some well-known appellations and their cooler neighbours.
(photo: Chris Gorman)
Bordeaux
Wines from Fronsac, Blaye, and Bourg use the same varieties of grape.
ONE TO TRY: The Château la Vieille Cure Fronsac 2011 has notes of toast and black plum.
Châteauneuf-du-Pape
Grenache-based blends of a similar style are produced in Vacqueyras and Gigondas.
ONE TO TRY: Cros de la Mure makes Châteauneuf-du-Pape and Gigondas; the 2011 release of the latter mixes herbs with red plum.
Barolo
Ghemme, Gattinara, and Lessona all do lighter takes on Nebbiolo, Barolo’s grape.
ONE TO TRY: Lessona is closest to the bigger Barolo styles; Sperino’s 2009 shows cherry and raspberry aromas.
Brunello di Montalcino
Other 100 per cent Sangioveses are found to the east—as with some Vino Nobile di Montepulciano—or south, in Umbria.
ONE TO TRY: Castello delle Regine uses a clone of the Brunello grape in its Sangiovese Grosso Selezione del Fondatore 2007, which also tastes like cherry and raspberry.
• • •
6. Natural wine is reaching Beyoncé-level popularity. But beware.
Most producers of natural wine don’t add sulfur dioxide, a preservative, so individual bottles—even within the same case—can taste very different. James Tidwell, a cofounder of TexSom, the U.S.’s largest sommelier conference, suggests drinking natural wine at places with “a stake in the category.” You want a bartender or a sommelier who can tell when a bottle is more than a standard deviation away from its best self.
TWO TO TRY: The Domaine Pierre-Jean Villa Préface Saint-Joseph Rouge 2013 is true to the spiciness typical of Saint-Josephs. The Franco Terpin Quinto Quarto Bianco 2013 is a white blend with tart fruit aromas.
• • •
7. Learn the latest lingo.
“White gardenias, lemon zest, yuzu—it’s poetic,” says Bernie Sun, the French portfolio brand director for the importer Kobrand. But one man’s yuzu is another man’s tangelo, so Sun says to ground conversations in concrete terms, like the following wine-world words that are fast becoming at home in the dining room.
Oxidative
A wine can have oxidative properties for one of two reasons: Either there was deliberate oxygen exposure during wine-making—a trendy practice—giving the end product a slight nutty taste, or uncontrolled amounts of oxygen got in, and the nuttiness is overwhelming.
Reductive
If a wine is reductive, that means so little oxygen got in during wine-making that there’s a burnt-match aroma (more of an issue now because screw tops let in less oxygen than corks do). Decanting helps it “blow off.”
Volatile
In wines that display volatile acidity, low levels of acetic acid (the same as in vinegar) enhance their fruity characteristics
Brett
Brettanomyces is a yeast that can get into wine in older (read: dirtier) cellars. It creates an earthy aroma that’s more accepted today because craft-beer brewers use it.
• • •
8. You don’t need a “reason” to drink champagne.
(photo: Chris Gorman)
It took us only a few hundred years to catch up, but we’re finally drinking bubbly the way Europeans do, as an aperitif, says Patrick Cappiello, wine director at New York’s Pearl & Ash. “Producers used to make bruts for the American Coca-Cola palate,” he says. “That sugar inhibited champagne as a food wine.” Now styles with no or little added sugar are easier to find, and they pair well with food because of their acidity.
ONE TO TRY: The Chateau Frank Brut 2008(left), produced in New York’s Finger Lakes region, is made with the same techniques and grapes as champagne; it tastes citrusy and bready.
• • •
9. And you should try having your bubbly decanted. Seriously.
“Decanting champagne will sacrifice bubbles, but it enriches the nose. This has been ferociously trendy in Paris for the past several years, and the practice is gaining believers here as well.” —Charles Curtis, author, The Original Grand Crus of Burgundy
• • •
10. Bring your own bottle. But not “just because.”
Corkage is illegal in 13 states, and in four others it’s allowed only in restaurants that don’t have a wine license. But in the past few years, laws have been loosened in Virginia, Maryland, and Michigan, and pressure is on restaurateurs to be hospitable to the practice. This doesn’t sit well with everyone in the industry. “There’s a ton of work involved in creating a great list, and with that comes a sense of pride,” says Josiah Baldivino, who was a sommelier on both coasts before he opened Bay Grape in Oakland, California. “So to bring in a bottle ‘just because’ is kind of a douche move.”
• • •
11. Sidle up to a wine bar. Because they can actually be cool.
(photo: Bascule)
Enterprising sommeliers and restaurateurs are giving the tired date-night standby new life, with considered wine lists and food that transcends the sad cheese plate.
—Maura Kutner Walters
June
Brooklyn
Natural U.S. and European vintages pair with small plates that nod to the owners’ Italian and Indian backgrounds.
TRY: The 2014 Stéphane Morin “Amédée,” a light-bodied French Syrah, with the slow-baked carrots with Roman gnocchi.
Bascule Wine Bar
Chicago
The sommeliers who run Bascule specialize in wine from up-and-coming areas, and there’s a tap system with five domestics—whites, reds, and a house rosé.
TRY: The citrusy and vanilla-scented François Secondé Sillery Blanc Grand Cru, the only still white produced in grand cru vineyards in Champagne, with the Maine mussels with pimenton and seaweed.
Augustine
Los Angeles
This Sherman Oaks spot has old, rare bottles that co-owner David Gibbs collected during decades of touring with his band, the Gigolo Aunts.
TRY: An acidic, grassy 2012 White Pressed Pinot Noir from Germany’s Gutzler Estate and a root-vegetable Caesar salad.
Cibo Wine Bar
Miami
This three-story space in South Beach has a floor-to-ceiling glass wine cellar that splits the main dining room from the bar area.
TRY: A Gavi di Gavi Fontanafredda Piedmont 2013, which has notes of tropical fruit that play with the natural sweetness of the roasted red peppers on a Diavola pizza.
