{"id":2165,"date":"2022-08-29T13:31:05","date_gmt":"2022-08-29T13:31:05","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/powertasting.com\/?p=2165"},"modified":"2022-08-29T13:31:05","modified_gmt":"2022-08-29T13:31:05","slug":"how-to-order-from-unfamiliar-wine-lists","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/powertasting.com\/?p=2165","title":{"rendered":"How to Order from Unfamiliar Wine Lists"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>When we go wine tasting, we are almost always tasting wines we\u2019ve never tasted before.\u00a0 Even if we\u2019re at a familiar winery, we\u2019re going to sample a new vintage.\u00a0 Often, the tasting room will put some bottlings on their menu for the day that we\u2019ve never heard of, much less tasted.\u00a0 If we\u2019re visiting a winery we\u2019ve never been to before, especially when we travel abroad, we\u2019re in the dark.<\/p>\n<p>This is all great preparation for ordering wine off a restaurant\u2019s list, where we know nothing (or almost nothing).\u00a0 What to choose?\u00a0 This is where our experience with wine tasting trips comes to our aid.\u00a0 A few tips might help you, too.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>You could ask your waiter. <\/strong>These days, your waiter may not be old enough to drink, much less to develop expertise in wine! The best you can hope for is that he or she can tell you what\u2019s the most popular.\u00a0 In fairness, the type of establishment that has inexperienced wait staff often has a less-than-inspiring wine list, sometimes consisting of two choices: red or white.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/powertasting.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/08\/sommelier.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone  wp-image-2166 aligncenter\" src=\"http:\/\/powertasting.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/08\/sommelier-300x137.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"644\" height=\"294\" srcset=\"https:\/\/powertasting.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/08\/sommelier-300x137.jpg 300w, https:\/\/powertasting.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/08\/sommelier.jpg 624w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 644px) 100vw, 644px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><em>Photo courtesy of Sommeliers Choice Awards<\/em><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Or a sommelier.<\/strong> At the other extreme, restaurants that do have quality wine lists may also have someone trained to help you choose, i.e., a sommelier.\u00a0 But there are problems here as well.\u00a0 The sommelier is an employee of the house and has an incentive to direct you to the more expensive items on the list.\u00a0 A good one will ask you what types of wine you like and the characteristics you prefer, such as robustness, acidity or intensity.\u00a0 And definitely what your price range is.\u00a0 Even then, you\u2019re going to be offered what he or she thinks meets your tastes, which may or may not work out.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Go with a wine<\/strong> <strong>that\u2019s from a familiar region<\/strong>. If we\u2019re dealing with wines from California, France or Italy, for example, we know enough to say \u201cWe don\u2019t know these wines, but we know that a Bordeaux usually pleases us\u201d.\u00a0 But if we\u2019re at a Hungarian or an Argentine restaurant, for instance, that\u2019s not going to help.\u00a0 And when we\u2019re overseas, our best hope is to try our luck.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Choose on the basis of price<\/strong>. Think about your overall restaurant experience with wine.\u00a0 How much do you usually pay for wine as a percentage of the overall meal.\u00a0 A third?\u00a0 A half? More?\u00a0 Less?\u00a0 Use that as your guide.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Or go at it the other way round.\u00a0 How much do you want to spend on a bottle that night?\u00a0 Probably less on a random Tuesday, more on\u00a0a weekend and even more for a special occasion.\u00a0 Let\u2019s say you\u2019re ready to spend $75.\u00a0 Look for a number in the $65 to $85 range on the right side of the list.\u00a0 If the restaurant is knowledgeable and honest, you&#8217;ll get a bottle that satisfies you.\u00a0 This isn\u2019t a perfect rule, but it has worked out pretty well for us.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>When we go wine tasting, we are almost always tasting wines we\u2019ve never tasted before.\u00a0 Even if we\u2019re at a familiar winery, we\u2019re going to sample a new vintage.\u00a0 Often, the tasting room will put some bottlings on their menu for the day that we\u2019ve never heard of, much less tasted.\u00a0 If we\u2019re visiting a &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/powertasting.com\/?p=2165\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading <span class=\"screen-reader-text\">How to Order from Unfamiliar Wine Lists<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/powertasting.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2165"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/powertasting.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/powertasting.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/powertasting.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/powertasting.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2165"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/powertasting.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2165\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2167,"href":"https:\/\/powertasting.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2165\/revisions\/2167"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/powertasting.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2165"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/powertasting.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2165"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/powertasting.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2165"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}