Taking Some Wine ‘Truths’ to Task

In your stories on wine service in Los Angeles restaurants (“The New Sommeliers,” Jan. 16), Matt Kramer and Jean T. Barrett pointed out some of the ways restaurants create wine programs to complement the overall dining experience.

However, I would like to draw upon my own experiences in the restaurant business and as an employee of a major wine and spirits wholesaler to play a hand or two of the “Wine List Poker” you dealt in your article and to take some of your “truths” to task.

* Truth No. 1: Bravo! We’ve suffered through too many heavy, thick-rimmed, stubby stemmed, inelegant goblets from which we are expected to appreciate the nuances of a fine wine. However, as you suggest, fine glassware adds significantly to the cost of wine service, and these costs cannot be dismissed as “penny-pinching” excuses.

* Truths No. 2 and No. 3: The wine-pricing formula in most restaurants is indeed flawed. Many lists are based on the old 2 1/2 to 3 times cost that was the standard for so many years. Most aggressive wine lists now base their pricing on actual cost rather than undiscounted wholesale cost and thus pass some savings on to their guests. But from a strictly economical sense, consider this: A bottle of vodka for use in the well (as opposed to a call or premium) typically costs between $5 and $8. At $4.50 per cocktail, this bottle will generate from $90 to $100 with no spoilage or easily broken stemware. By comparison, an $8 wholesale bottle of wine sold at $18 to $24 seems like a losing proposition, not exactly favoring the house.

* Truth No. 4: Estate vs. negociant or grower vs. shipper. The true test of a well laid-out list is the diversity represented by price and style, and to suggest that the necessary wines can be supplied only by wineries locked into the production of their own vineyards year after year is unrealistic. Many reputable shippers have long-standing relationships with farmers producing grapes to their quality standards. For consistent quality (albeit without the sometimes soaring flashes of brilliance of an estate wine with a well-recognized character), a guest would be well-served to have these wines offered as the foundation of a list to which the “gems” ferreted out by the sommelier are added.

* Truth No. 5: Right on, again. I’m tired of seeing long, over-dramatic lists that try to make up in size what they lack in thoughtfulness. Creativity is at a premium, and those sommeliers who can make the most efficient use of limited resources to extract the most wine dollars from their guests will be the most likely to have their wine programs survive.

* Truth No. 6: Wine lists without all the information necessary to make an intelligent selection are indeed the stuff of laziness or penny-pinching. In the world of laser-printed wine lists, there is little excuse for not listing vintage, producer, appellation, etc. However, there is also little excuse for any wine-serious restaurant to depend on these notes alone to inform and direct their guests. Having a well-educated wait staff doesn’t come cheap, however, and not all restaurants can provide this service for their guests.

DAVID SCHNEIDERMAN

Los Angeles