The Art of Ordering a Bottle of Wine

Wine, Vino, the Nectar of the Gods. Whatever you want to call it, thanks to a growing number of vineyards and the exponentially growing demand for quality, affordable wine has made the number of wines on the market explode.

While the expansion of the wine market has helped to make quality wine more affordable, it’s also helped to make the choosing of a good wine at either a restaurant or grocery store a bit more tricky. Fortunately, there are a few simple things to keep in mind when doing so that will help to ease the process.

Perhaps the oldest question, and the easiest to answer, is which wine to drink with which food. The traditional response is that you drink white wine with white meat (pork, chicken, seafood), and red wine with your red meat. While this generally holds true, that doesn’t mean there isn’t some wiggle room. With white zinfandel and rose’ varietals floating around you get a mix of both your red and white wine, which can be paired with almost any kind of food.

The biggest mistake made when searching for a wine is the fear so many people seem to have with asking for advice. The smartest thing one can do when trying to figure out which kind of wine they want is to ask the question. Ask your server, bartender, ask the lady at the checkout counter, ask the person at the next table (which I’ve had happen to me…it’s really quite amusing), read some wine reviews ahead of time, ask anybody to get an opinion on what kind of wine to go with.

“Give me your most expensive bottle of wine!” We’ve all seen the movies, we all know the line, the guy trying to show off by buying the most expensive bottle. Words of advice: price isn’t the end all be all when it comes to buying a bottle of wine. Now I’m not trying to say that if you spend forty dollars on a bottle of wine that it won’t be good, but some of the most enjoyable wine I’ve bought has cost me less than twenty dollars a bottle.

If you were to go behind the bar of most wine intensive restaurants you’d probably find that while they more than likely have at least one bottle of wine that runs over fifty dollars, it’s the ones that run around twenty to thirty that tend to be going out to tables, and nobody is complaining. While showing off your impressive bank account is great, don’t let price be a determining factor when choosing a bottle, or glass for that matter, of wine.

“How will I know how the wine tastes?” Valid question, thanks for asking it. Surprisingly, most restaurants will give you a sample of the wine you want to try. If you go to a wine store, while they might not be able to give you a sample, they should be able to give you an excellent idea of what to expect from the wine.

Most restaurants use a progressive wine list, meaning that from top to bottom, the wines are listed lightest to darkest, sweetest to driest. This means that if you want a very dry red wine, you should jump to the bottom of the list, whereas if you want a medium bodied white you’re probably going to want to look around the middle of the white wines.

Ordering a bottle of wine at a restaurant is not a scary event. By simply talking to the staff, maybe doing a little bit of research before you go, and really just having a willingness to try something new, ordering wine is as easy as trying to decide if you want Miller Lite or Bud Light. Don’t be afraid to try new things, and just remember, the worst thing that can happen is that you don’t like it.

Oh, and as a side note, while price isn’t a determining factor, if you can’t pronounce the type of wine, not to be confused with the name…some of those are just mean and tricky, then you deserve to be charged for the most expensive bottle of wine on the list. Remember, it’s merlot (mer-low), not merlot (mer-lot). It’s cabernet (cab-er-nay), not cabernet (cab-er-net). This has been a public service announcement from your local bartender.

About the Author

George R. Perry is the mind behind The $20 Sommelier. A retired bartender, George now commits himself to writing wine reviews and helping budget shoppers find affordable wine to enjoy. The $20 Sommelier can be found online at: http://the20bucksommelier.blogspot.com .