What to Do with the Cork

What do you do with the cork? Nothing. It used to be that the cork was presented so that you could check the name printed on it, and ensure that the wine in the bottle was the same as the label promised, not a bottle of plonk upon which some fraud slapped a fake label.

That used to happen with enough regularity that people felt it necessary to check the cork, but frauds come in slicker styles than label swaps these days, and IDing the cork probably won’t help.

As the Cork Crumbles

What if the cork is broken or crumbly? A broken cork could have more to do with the person who opened it than with the cork itself; the biggest problem there will be theirs, as it’s tough to extract it once it breaks.

If it does break and a few crumbs of cork fall into the wine, it won’t hurt anything. A quick splash into a glass should get rid of most of the offending pieces, and no off flavors will be transmitted.

If the cork is very wet and crumbly, and the wine isn’t decades old, there may be a problem, as that could be a sign that the fit wasn’t tight and so air may have seeped in. But you can’t know if it adversely affected the wine by looking at or smelling the cork. You have to smell and taste the wine.

The Tasting Pour

Now the waiter will pour a small amount into your glass, and stand back waiting for your response. What will you do? Exactly what you do whenever you taste wine.

• Swirl
• Smell
• Sip

If the wine tastes fine, then nod for the waiter to continue pouring. He’ll move on to the next person and fill the glass a little less than half full, so that there’s room to swirl the wine, and continue like so around the table before coming back to finish filling your glass up.

What happens, though, if the wine tastes bad? It all depends on the definition of bad.

You pay for a glass of wine but what you get is a glass that’s less than half full, What’s the deal? The waiter isn’t trying to rip you off; he’s giving you the room you need to be able to swirl the wine and fully appreciate its scent as well as its taste. In fact, it’s when the wine is poured all the way to the rim that it’s time to get miffed.

Uncategorized Wine Tasting

You’ve ordered the wine. Whew! One big step out of the way. But here the guy comes with the bottle, a corkscrew, and a little plate. What’s all the rigmarole about? Why doesn’t he just pour the wine and let you get on with it?

In many restaurants, that is all that happens, and though it’s less embarrassing, it’s not with your best interests in mind. There is a possibility that the wine will be bad, and the tasting ceremony is your chance to find out and correct the situation.

Some parts of the tasting ceremony are more for show than for use, though, so here’s a primer in What to Do with That Cork, and other ways to handle the tasting ceremony coolly.

What to Expect

You might not feel comfortable when all eyes at the table train on you as the waiter presents you with the wine, but you should be mighty glad you have that chance. The waiter brings the wine to you so you can …

• Make sure it’s the one you ordered.
• Make sure it tastes like it should.

If it’s not the bottle you ordered, or it is but doesn’t taste like it should, this is your chance to reject it and request it be replaced with the correct bottle in good shape. Think about it: The embarrassment the tasting ceremony might cause is nothing compared to what would happen were a bad bottle poured all around.

Sometimes it pays to smell the glasses before the wine is even poured. Soap or damp rag smells can add unpleasant notes to a perfectly good wine.

This moment, however, is not a chance to decide you don’t like what you’ve chosen. Let’s go through the steps so you’ll know exactly what to expect and how to handle it.

Check the Label

The waiter should give you time to check the name, vintage, and any other identifying information on the label to make sure it’s what you ordered. (If he’s really good, he’ll point out all the salient information for you, as it’s sometimes hard to make the details quickly in a dark restaurant.)

Once you’ve determined that it is indeed the wine you ordered, he’ll step back and open the wine. When he’s uncorked it, he’ll put the cork on the table.

Uncategorized Wine Tasting

Once you’ve figured out how the wine list is laid out, there are some tricks for divining which wines might be the best buys.

The typical American cuisine restaurant carries more California Chardonnay, Merlot, and Cabernet than anything else, because those are wines that sell without effort. That leaves less room for other categories, and those other wines take more effort to sell so the sommelier has to be pickier, especially when it comes to price/quality ratio.

Search for the quirks. A Slovakian wine is not going to fly out the door, so someone must have put it there because he or she liked it.

Is there a bizarrely grandiose Austrian wine selection? An out-of-proportion array of Australians? Is the Burgundy section bursting at the seams? You can bet these areas are where the wine manager’s heart lies, where he can’t control himself—thus the eyecatching length, and perhaps a lower markup.

The least expensive wine may be good, or it might simply be on the list to hit a “price point.” The most expensive wine, on the other hand, often bestows status more than anything. Typically, most people buy wines that fall in the middle price range of the list or just above. The sweet spot, however, is usually right under the median price. These are the wines that the sommelier needs to work harder to sell, since people don’t gravitate there naturally, and therefore they have to be good.

Scan the list for familiar names, and check whether the prices are higher than normal (on average, a restaurant bottle sells for about twice its retail price). If so, there may be no bargains here, and so it’s safer to play toward the bottom of the list.

If the list just offers White Zinfandel and big-name, bargain-priced reds and whites, order a margarita and save your wine drinking for another list. Life is just too short for bad wine, and it’s an insult to good food. Eventually, the restaurant might ask itself why everyone is drinking margaritas instead of Riesling and change their ways. But you’ll be gone by then. Too bad for them.

Steer clear of “cult wines,” those big-name, hard-to-find wines with prices inflated by high scores from wine critics. Unless you’re dining with a label hound, there’s always a better buy for the money.

Uncategorized picking value wine, selecting value wine

What to do if there’s no one on the floor who has a clue? The sommelier’s out sick, or the restaurant didn’t bother to hire one? Delve into the list. Everything you need to know is in there. It’s just a matter of knowing where to look.

The first thing you’ll want to do is figure out how it’s set up.

Wine lists come in all shapes and sizes, from a laser-printed piece of paper to an oversized leather portfolio. The look of the list won’t tell you much but the level of pretension, though.

There are three major ways to design a wine list: Throw money at it, stocking the cellar with all the wines you can afford; hand it over to your wine distributor, who will fill it up with wines they will make good money on; or pick and choose a manageable amount of wines carefully tailored to the style of the restaurant’s cuisine, prices, and vibe.

All three methods can lead to good lists, and all have the possibility of ending badly, so give the list a hard look. In a big list, look to see how they’ve filled the space. Does it read like the catalogue for a wine store, with lots of everything and nothing that stands out, or is the list a treasure trove of older vintages, hard-to-find wines, and “verticals,” different vintages of the same winery’s wines? Does it have a slant that suggests the list is so big because the sommelier can’t contain himself when it comes to his favorite country’s wines?

In a small list, does it offer some interesting options beyond the usual Chardonnay, Merlot, and Cabernet Sauvignon? Do the prices feel reasonable compared to those for the food?

How’s the list arranged? There are no rules here. The traditional method, modeled after wine lists in Old World countries like France where wines are typically labeled by the region in which they grew, is to group wines by country, and within country by region.

That works well if you know a lot about a country’s wines, but it can leave the rest of us out. Therefore, a lot of restaurants in the United States have taken to arranging wines by grape variety.

The downfall here, as you know by now, is that not all Merlots, for instance, are created equal, and the range of styles can make choosing by variety a bit of a minefield.

Look for half-bottles on wine lists: They can be a boon to couples who’s like one wine for appetizers and another for entrees, and don’t want two full bottles. Half-bottles can also be a good way to try something that’s too expensive in a full-sized bottle.

Many restaurants compromise by arranging the wines by style. The divisions might be as straightforward as light, medium, and heavy, but usually they are also whimsical, like “light and flirty” and “big and brooding,” or “librarian types” and “hussies.”

Uncategorized selecting wine, sommelier