How to Read a Wine List

2 of 9 in Series: The Essentials of Pairing Wine with Food

You may dread wading through a restaurant’s wine list, knowing that it can be an ego-deflating experience. There's no need to fear the wine list — with a little guidance and a few tips, you can learn to navigate its choppy waters with ease.

As soon as your server comes to the table, ask to see the wine list. Besides communicating to the server that you feel comfortable with wine (whether it’s true or not), your asking for the list quickly gives you more time to study it.

Sizing up the organization of a wine list

Note how the wines in the wine list are categorized and how they’re arranged within each category. You may discover the wines arranged in the following categories:

Champagne and sparkling wines
(Dry) white wines
(Dry) red wines
Dessert wines

Some restaurants further subdivide the wines on their list according to country, especially in the white and red wine categories: French red wines, Italian red wines, American reds, and so on. These country sections may then be subdivided by wine region. France, for example, may have listings of Bordeaux, Burgundy, and possibly Rhône all under French red wines.

Following are two recent wine list trends at wine-conscious restaurants:

The progressive wine list, in which wines appear in a progressive sequence under each category heading. For example, under “Chardonnays,” the wines are arranged by weight and richness, progressing from the lightest wines to the most intense, regardless of price.
Lists that use wine styles as their basic form of organization. In these lists, the category headings are neither varietal nor regional, but describe the taste of the wines in each category, such as “Fresh, crisp, unoaked whites,” or “Full-bodied, serious reds.”

Often you’ll find that within each category of a wine list, the wines appear in ascending order of price with the least expensive wine first. Many a restaurateur is betting that you won’t order that first wine out of fear of looking cheap. But that least expensive wine may be perfectly fine!

What the wine list should tell you

The more serious a restaurant is about its wine selection, the more information it gives you about each wine. Here’s some information you’re likely to find on the wine list:

An item number for each wine. These are sometimes called bin numbers, referring to the specific location of each wine in the restaurant’s cellar or wine storage room. Item numbers make it easier for the server to locate and pull the wine quickly for you.
The name of each wine. These names may be grape names or place-names, but they should also include the name of each producer (Château this or that, or such-and-such Winery), or you’ll have no way of knowing exactly which wine any listing is meant to represent.
A vintage indication for each wine. If the wine is a blend of wines from different years, it may say NV, for non-vintage. Sometimes, you’ll see VV, which means that the wine is a vintage-dated wine — you'll need to ask about the actual vintage year. The restaurateur may not want to bother changing the year on the list when the wine’s vintage changes.
Sometimes, a brief description of the wines. This is unlikely if dozens of wines are on the list.
Sometimes, suggestions from the restaurateur for certain wines to pair with certain dinner entrées. This information may be helpful at times, but you may not always like — or agree with — their wine suggestion.
Prices. There will always be a price for each wine.

Many restaurants that are serious about wine publish their wine lists on the Internet. Before a special meal, you can go to the restaurant’s Web site and make a short list of possible wines for your meal — guaranteed to boost your comfort level.