Wine in Restaurants

Here is the typical picture you are in a fine restaurant with a couple of customers or friends. As usual the wine list is passed to you with "You know more about wine than me Joe,… you order". Panic strikes you, what will you do now? Unfortunately a lot of restaurants either have very poor wine list or they have turned the simple task of ordering wine into a complex ritual with intimidating wine lists that resembles New York City telephone books. Waiters have memorized words like “breathing” and “decanting” and carry out their ritual or removing the cork and pouring a bit of wine holding the bottle like it is a fragile one week old baby that might break its neck if you move too quickly. The most often problem is however, disappointment with the wine list. Although it is getting better, we in North America and Asia are not given great choices of wines. strange as it may seem wine can be selected to accompany dinner, or dinner can be selected to accompany wine. Before you go out check to make sure the restaurant you are going to has a decent wine list. Sometimes the restaurant has good wine but has not put them on the wine list all you have to do is ask. The first thing I do before I pick out a wine is determine how much I want to spend. If the meal I am having isn't a special occassion I will not spend a lot of money on my under the “B” or under the "G” but will more than likely pick one under the "I" for interesting. Lets face it if we picked the best wine all the time we would need to mortgage our homes to maintain our lifestyles. The next thing I do is ask "what does everyone like to drink?" This usually gets my guests talking a bit and I can understand where they are in the world of understanding wine. Some will just say red or white, others will ask for a

grape variety such as Chardonnay or Cabernet Sauvignon. Sometimes, when you least expect it, someone will ask for a Burgundy, a 1990 Batard-Montrachet imported by Chartron, but it is rare. I will then ask if they want something light and classic or heavy and aggressive. If they are not sure ask them what they are going to order for food, and although there are no standard rules today as there were years ago (white with fish, red with beef) light wine goes with the more complicated foods and the heavy, aggressive wines go with the simple foods. If you are ordering more than one bottle you don't have to order the same type, if you give some variety it not only gives your guests some choice, but it adds conversation in the comparisons. I think the most important decision in selecting the wine is the year or the vintage of the wine. There is lots of things you don't have to memorize in appreciating wine but you must know the good years and the bad years. This knowledge will save you a lot of money. Usually the best vineyards still produce good wine in off years, but, you can get great wine from not so famous vineyards and producers at a much better price when it was a good year and all vineyards made great wine that year. For instance if the wine list has red Bordeaux on the list and has a 1992 Chateau Latour from Pauillac (a First Growth) for $200.00 and a 1990 Chateau Grand-Puy-Lacost (a Fifth Growth) also from Pauillac at 45.00 I would venture to say that not only would you probably enjoy the Grand-Puy-Lacost more, you would probably order two or three bottles if they were available and still have change left in your pocket. This certainly should influence your wine buying decision. Perhaps there is a good priced Pauillac wine you do not recognize on the wine list and it is a 1992 it becomes a Texas bottle from El PASSO, but if it is a 1990 it becomes a strong possibility for me to order, because 1990 was such a good year. You have made your wine selection based on the information you have read in this blog and the information you have gathered at the table. One of my greatest pet peeves is the wine snob. You have all seen him in restaurants hurling unwanted information at everybody, bashing the waiter for his lack of knowledge, nose high in the air and nothing is good enough. In the words of Michael Broadbent" the aristocrat of the table, the nature's gentleman of the cellar...the deeply knowledgeable, is rarely, if ever, a snob." I hate being with such characters, and, choose carefully who I share my wine with. Your knowledge of wine should only enhance your social . affairs and enjoyment of food. The waiter returns with the bottle and shows you the label. If it is the one you ordered check the vintage you ordered. He then removes the cork and hands it to you. You don't have to smell it! …look to see if it is moist and it's condition. If it is dry air might have gotten into the bottle and caused it to become oxidized and now "vinegar". This is caused by storing it upright instead of laying it down. lt is a good indicator that when you taste you might be in for a surprise. The waiter then pours a little, hopefully in a nice glass, and stands back holding the bottle for you to look at. I firstly swirl my wine in my glass to release all 'bouquets' and aromas. I look at the way the wine appears in my glass, and check the 'legs' or 'tears' fall down the glass as the liquid settles back in the bottom of the glass. This really tells you the amount of alcohol is in the wine. The more tears, the more alcohol. I then bring the glass up to my nose and inhale. One sniff, another swirl and then another sniff should be all you need to detect if there is any defects. You are only tasting here to give the waiter permission to pour the wine. Once it is poured you can spend as much time sniffing, swirling and swilling as you would like. It does not take a great deal of tasting experience to detect a flawed bottle of wine. If it is corky or tastes like mold it is usually a result of a bad cork and the wine is flawed. If tastes like Port or Sherry, it is usually a result of poor storage or exposure to heat. There is no doubt that the wine is bad. I have only had a few bottles that I found were flawed and sent back. I usually call the manager and explain what I tasted. Sometimes they will try it as well if it is expensive, but rarely will they challenge your call if you explain why it is flawed. Nobody likes to send back wine, but even fewer like to drink flawed wine. So, you checked the cork and it was fine. You detected no flaws, in fact, you are quite pleased with your decision. The waiter reaches for a decanter to pour the bottle into. Not all bottles of wine should be decanted. The main purpose of decanting is to separate the sediment from the wine which can be in older wines and unfiltered wines. Burgundians don't believe in decanting wine whether there is sediment or not. The other reason to decant wine is to aerate the wine. Big wines, certainly Italian wines, seem to like this process as the character of the wine softens. The choice to decant is all yours. I decant all unfiltered wines, old wines with sediment, big Italian wines and big Cabernet Sauvignon wines. I never decant a Pinot Noir or a Chardonnay. I don't let the old wines sit for long in the decanter as they are fragile, but I do let the Italians sit for a couple of hours.

Bingo Juice, intellectual and sensual but also healthy!     Over 30 studies in the past 20 years have all reached the   same conclusion: moderate consumption of one or two   drinks of wine a day is associated with significantly diminished             risk of heart attack. Ancient times and modern day research  provide cumulative wisdom.Wine dates back through many  ancient civilizations. It has been used as a medicine...a purifier... a drink to strengthen courage and stamina,  a beverage to enhance foods and is now included as part  of a healthy diet.