06/19/08 - Wine Store
Restaurant Wine List Review - Wine Taste, Why Keep It a Secret?
We?re your customers. That?s right, we pay your bills ? so listen up. Why can?t we understand your wine list? We know what we like, but your wine list doesn?t give us a clue. Ok, so we?re not wine knowledgeable, don?t hate us because we?d still like some wine that we?ll enjoy. We really like wine, especially with a good meal. But we don?t want to study the stuff so we can understand your wine list and know how a wine will taste.
Count these up: 1) County of Origin, 2) Producer, 3) Vintage date, 4) Appellation, 5) Variety of Grape, 6) Vineyard, and 7) season the grapes were picked (Ice Wine, Late Harvest, etc.). That?s right, seven items of information must be catalogued and understood to give us a chance at knowing what a wine tastes like when reading your traditional wine list. Keep six of these, change the seventh, and all bets are off on how the wine will taste. We get as confused as a blind dog in a meat house.
If you hear a lot of us saying, ?Just give me a glass of your house white,? you have a wine list problem. Hey, we?re not too cheap to buy a bottle of wine; we just don?t want to make a sizeable investment in a bottle we may not like. So why keep us in the dark, trying to decipher your wine list code? Why not tell us how the wine tastes, and we?ll pop for a bottle or two.
Expensive restaurants once solved this problem with a sommelier whose job it was to discern our taste preference, analyze the menu we?ve ordered, and recommend a wine we would enjoy with our meal. There are precious few qualified sommeliers around these days, especially in affordable restaurants. When your wait staff recommends, it?s usually wines they like.
The only thing worse than a traditional wine list is one with ?winese? puffery descriptions.
Example: ?This wine has hints of dark tree fruit, root vegetable, autumn leaves, pears, berries and vanilla, with a strong finish of cigar box.? Amazing! Do you have something that tastes like wine?
In January of 1980, Grey Moss Inn in Grey Forrest, Texas, implemented the ?Customer Friendly Wine List.? Customers could order wines by the way they taste for the first time ever. The wine list was divided into categories:
1) Slightly Sweet, 2) Light, Soft, 3) Light, Crisp, Fruity, 3) Fuller, Rounded, Dry,
4) Elegance, Finesse, 5) Robust, Complex, Full Flavored 6) After Dinner Sweet
Red, white and rose wines all appeared in most categories. Some wines like Chardonnay and Cabernet Sauvignon appeared under as many as three categories. As customers, we knew that by staying within a category we could be experimental ordering wine and still enjoy our selection.
Jill Goolden published the book, The Taste of Wine, around 1990 , and about a decade later Fiona Beckett published Wines by Style. The thesis of these books is to classify wine by how it tastes, rather than the seven criteria above. These books led to a rash of wine lists offering up their contents by taste profile ? but these glimmering lights seem to be flickering out.
If you lack the confidence to develop a wine list for your restaurant that lets us order wines by the way they taste, hire a qualified wine consultant, or work closely with your vendors to achieve your goal. Then watch your wines sales grow from glasses to bottles, as we feel comfortable ordering from your list.
Bill Stephens writes the syndicated column http://www.heyrestaurantguy.com . His 35 year career in food service includes restaurateur, caterer, food and wine columnist for Harte-Hanks, Murdoch and Hearst Newspapers, food and wine magazine journalist, and he consults for restaurants with Bill Stephens Associates http://www.billstephensassociates.com |
A synopsis on Wine Store.
Restaurant Wine List Review - Wine Taste, Why Keep It a Secret?
We?re your customers. That?s right, we pay your bills ? so listen up. Why can?t we understand your wine list? We know what we like, but your wine list...
Click Here to Read More About Wine ...
Wine Store Items For Viewing
The FTD Towering Beauty Arrangement - Premium
This tree shaped arrangement is a distinctive gift to remember someone unique. Tree shaped bells of Ireland are accented at the base with roses, lilies, and carnations. Appropriate to send to a home or to a funeral. S18-3568P
Price: 189.99 USD
Current Wine Store News
Wine Storage Tips - The Right Way
Thu, 22 May 2008 16:23:36 PDT
Any wine storage tips? I bought a case of what hopefully will turn in a great batch and I want to make sure my investment is safe. Do you know what I could do for proper wine preservation? Thanks a whole lot! - Dana in Meridian, MSHere are wine storage tips for all the lovers of wine who are keen on keeping a few bottles around for...
DESIGNER SUNGLASSES edge i wear C766 click for more colors
Thu, 22 May 2008 17:17:42 PDT
DESIGNER SUNGLASSES edge i wear C766 click for more colors. UV protection. Beautiful storage case included. ISO and CE approved. Select color from the drop-down menu. Plum frames have a gradient lens from dark to light. The wine colored frames and the dark brown frames have a solid lens.
How to Build a Wine Closet: Part 2
Sat, 24 May 2008 18:27:41 PDT
The second half of an article describing how to turn a coat closet into a wine storage closet.
Could the ocean floor be the new wine cellar?
Fri, 06 Jun 2008 09:00:00 PDT
Filed under: Wine, France Did you ever go to the beach and think "this would be great for wine storage?" Well someone did. For the past few years some French wine makers have been storing and maturing wine about 15 meters under water. Proponents of this method say it works because "temperature is a constant 10 degrees, the movement of the current gently rocks the bottles and there is no danger of damage from UV light." They do say, though, that the ocean has more of an effect on white wines t
Summer Wine Chillers
Fri, 06 Jun 2008 15:32:33 PDT
Summer Wine Chillers By Janie Franz Summer is just a couple of weeks away and many of us are thinking about entertaining outdoors close to the barbeque grill. What better way to accent succulent steamed fish, caramelized fruit, or grilled veggies than a chilled white wine. On a hot day, even a red wine can take a little cooling down, especially when temperatures hit the 90s or higher. But how do you keep the wine flowing if your wine storage unit is in your kitchen or even in your cellar?
Wine Reviews
Wine Merchants
Labels: Wine Stain | Wine Stains
