Last week, I was in Florida, and because of luggage restrictions, I did not bring any wine. I was with my wife’s family who enjoy wine, but do not consider it anything other than a beverage.
So I am cooking dinner, and want some decent wine, so go to the local ABC in Orlando. There is plenty of choice, but only a few familiar names, and those familiar names are on bottles that are way beyond the budget I have been given. Worse still, the values are horrible, at least 60% above what I would normally pay. I decide on a bottle of Pommery, and here at least, the price is a little more competitive. The Bordeaux, Burgundies and Piedmonts aren’t, so I decide to be adventurous. The staff doesn’t give a damn, and the manager is out of the store. I narrow the field down; no cutsey animal names (that eliminates half the wines) and I am still stuck. Nothing is familiar, how do people choose wine when there are no clues to what is in the bottle? Most of my purchases are done through brokers, auction houses or from e mail. It’s been a long, long time since I ventured into a wine store with a smallish budget and faced racks and racks of bottles with labels which mean nothing.
And suddenly I see shelf talkers. They have six different critics; I choose Tanzer as my guide. It works out well, but it was really interesting to remember being lost in a wine shop with only shelf talkers to guide you.
I end up buying a couple of interesting bottles including a New Zealand Pinot but predictably, I went over my agreed budget and bought a bottle of overpriced Bordeaux. Wine can still be intimidating; it’s much better than it used to be, but most of America probably has a similar experience to the one I just had.
I feel like this happens to me all the time at work dinners. I go to a restaurant and have to buy something off the wine list. The list is mediocre, the prices make your nose bleed, and everyone is expecting me to buy a gem (at a reasonable price) because I am a wino. For example, I had this happen this summer at a Mortons in Atlanta. Never fun.
Mark - I’ll raise you one. Go into a store and you figure you can probably find a safe bet from the Rhone or maybe a Chianti. You see shelves and shelves of wine so you ask. You’re directed to the “imports” which are on a couple of shelves in the back. They’re arranged randomly but each country is represented by one or two bottles plus whatever sweet version of Muscat they’re making.
It’s clearly hopeless so you go to the American wine. It’s a lot of generic stuff, lots of Gallo brands, stuff that makes zero sense like Plungerhead (!) and it’s roughly 75% Cabs and Pinot Noirs from who knows where. I finally settled for something white, as that’s often a better bet than an unknown red.
When I was in DC in October I also went into a (here recommended) wine-store - and the selection was really good. The price level was definitely higher than I´m used to from Europe, but for a dinner there I would have had enough to pick (but there was no opportunity).
I guess I would have bought an Austrian wine, maybe GV from Wachau or Sauvignon blanc from Styria - they HAD it … and for red a CdP.
Very wise thread. Sometimes in my local supermarket (San Francisco – they likely have an above average selection relative to many places) when bored while shopping I’ll browse the wine aisle and see if anything interesting is on the shelves. Overpriced Bourgognes? Obscure Spanish wines? In California there is almost always some regional Pinot or Cabernet that is passable. But for the average wine buyer this is pretty daunting stuff. Basically – pick a region and a price point and then grab a random bottle.
I have the same experience as Howard at restaurants. But I usually end up enjoying it – I can almost always find something I’m curious about, though the Burg/Bord lists of crazily priced/crazily young wines are always a bit of a downer. Rhone or California tend to be places I’ve found better restaurant QPR (if there is such a thing), or Oregon or Chianti.
A few times I’ve found myself strangely early at a restaurant for a work dinner and have thoroughly enjoyed spending 20 minutes studying/researching a wine list to find gems worthy of drinking. I recently have been trying wine apps like WineGlass, and I wish they worked a lot better. Searching through CT one bottle at a time on a phone is slow!
That is what I would do in a retail store (even though in the types of stores being discussed it often does not help - you aren’t going to find Kermit Lynch or Peter Weygandt wines there). But, this is of no help at a restaurant.
Drives me insane. Why can I find dozens of interesting beers at whole foods or the local wine store but zero interesting wines. And importer wouldn’t help because you don’t see much Kermit or Rosenthal around here.
ABC’s used to have some great stores. The larger one’s had a nice cellar that usually had some pretty interesting wines. They’ve remolded most of them now and the set up is not great for any wino looking for some good and interesting wines at decent prices. As much as Total Wine gets slammed it is a better option if you can find one( they have sprung up all over Florida).
My go to wine in these situations or at Restaurants is a Ridge Zin. Usually decent price even in a steakhouse and typically you know your going to get a solid wine for the $$. 2nd choice is Oregon Pinot from a decent producer. My work team used to think I was crazy for bringing wine to our client dinners now they and my customers know we’ll drink much better this way and cut down on the expense tab.
Same here but sometimes you just have one of those nightmare moments. Like when you’re out of town and you already drank all the wine you brought! Had that experience recently too. It’s been a long time since I haven’t brought my own wine and there I was looking at the restaurant list. Problem there wasn’t that I didn’t know a single wine, it’s that the mark-up for those I knew was incredible. So I figured rather than overpay for something I know, even if I like it, I’d go full tourist and ask the somm for a rec. We talked and after he got past the Merlot-is-a-red-grape stage, we were cool. Ended up with something Greek that was actually pretty good.
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