A Featured Wine Cellars Article

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.

Another short Wine Cellars review

The Unknown of the Organic Wines


The idea of a career hit them in a restaurant in London, as they saw on the wine list the description of a "hangover-free alternative" type of wine. S...


Click Here to Read More About Wine ...

Wine Cellars Items For Viewing

Riedel Vinum Rhone/Syrah (Set of 2)


Riedel Vinum Wine Glasses make every drop of wine taste its best. Riedel revolutionized glassware by customizing the shape of wine glasses to a particular type of wine. Each wine glass is fine-tuned to direct the flow of the wine onto parts of the palate that will best express the flavors and aromas of a specific wine varietal. The fine crystal offers superb clarity so you can experience the wine's color and texture. Riedel Vinum offers a comprehensive selection of varietal-specific glassware that's affordable functional and dishwasher safe. Wines made from the Syrah grape typically exhibit intense aromas blackberries pepper as well as floral scents. The narrow rim of the Riedel Vinum Rhone / Syrah wine glass directs the flow of wine to the mid-palate allowing you to experience the wine's silky texture and sensuous fruit flavors while the tannins flow to the back of the palate for a smooth finish. Recommended for: Amarone Barbera Rhone (red). 9 1/4'H 22 7/8 oz.


Price: 49.80 USD



Current Wine Cellars News

Wine holidays in Tuscany

Wed, 13 Feb 2008 23:07:34 PST
Winding through the Tuscan hills, the wine roads offer travel itineraries within remarkable viticulture areas which are characterized by vineyards and wine cellars and also by landscape, historical attractions in a frame where all kinds of comfort is offered to welcome tourists.

Wine Cellar Secrets: Bay of Fires Riesling, 2007

Tue, 19 Feb 2008 14:08:37 PST
Bay of Fires Riesling, 2007 - Bay of Fires is the Tasmanian winery of the Hardy group; Fran Austin is the winemaker. This riesling is a thrilling wine that really leaps from the glass. It is fresher, more aromatic and livelier in the mouth than most 2007 Aussie rieslings - generally not a great riesling year.

Wine Cellar Secrets: Elderton Barossa Merlot, 2005

Mon, 03 Mar 2008 18:38:49 PST
The 2005 Elderton Barossa Merlot is a ripping red and also good value. It's a full-bodied, rich and fully ripe, warm-climate style and is probably not a wine that will gain great complexity or subtlety with age, but it's delicious drunk while young.

NSW Wine Week

Mon, 03 Mar 2008 19:02:48 PST
Local wines are often overlooked in favour of produce from other states. NSW Wine Week 2008 aims to change that.What's On:Good Living Sydney Cellar Door. 103 wineries from 14 regions showcase their best wines in Hyde Park south from 11am to 6 pm on Sunday. Pay $5 for a glass, then $3 for each tasting and place orders direct with the winery

New Celebrity Sex Tape: Gisele And Tom Brady?

Wed, 05 Mar 2008 15:53:27 PST
A rumor has surfaced that there may be Tom Brady - Gisele sex tape. Employees at the NYC eatery Philippe claim that they have seen surveillance tape of the two cavorting in one of the private wine cellars. Reps for Philippe say that there are cameras but the tapes are not on-site. We suppose if this thing makes it onto the interweb, we'll all know.

21st Century Wine Storage Systems

Thu, 06 Mar 2008 06:53:23 PST
If you are looking for an effective cellar for your wine...


Wine Goblets
Wine Enthusiast

Labels: Wine Prints

&type=page">