Continuing on my strategic quest to find the best odds for the restaurant wine list gamble, here’s part two of my tips for outsmarting the house, and choosing affordable wine. (Check out tip #1 from the series here, if you missed it.)
Tip # 2: Seek the Unknown
The flipside to avoiding kenos (those money-grubbing wine list selections) is to find the blackjacks of the wine list. These have the lowest house edge and best odds for you. And they’re usually the wines you’ve never heard of. Consider the mentality of the sommelier; pros who spend their time tasting wine quickly grow tired of mainstream, popular brands and overly fashionable grapes. They are always seeking something new, unusual, interesting, from unknown grapes or places, expanding their horizons, indulging their passion. This is what keeps the job exciting, what quickens the pulse; it’s not cranking corks on the hundredth bottle of pinot grigio or doing inventory at 3am.
While such obscure wines often offer better value, that is, more flavour and character for the money, the sommelier also knows that unknown wines don’t sell. But sommeliers are passionate and can’t help themselves — some wines are just too cool not to list. So it’s added, but at a very reasonable markup to entice you to explore. After all, what’s the point of listing an obscure, poor quality wine at an inflated price?
So, find the odd ducks on the list: the wines, even if well known, that seem out of place. The first step is to identify the usual suspects. A steakhouse is expected to lists big cabernets for example, or a pizzeria Chianti or Valpolicella. For the same reasons stated above, these wines will be the main sellers and source of profit, the categories where the odds of hitting a keno are highest. Playing here is playing right into the hands of the house.
But in a well-curated program run by a passionate sommelier, there will invariably be some outliers, wines that don’t really fit in with the general theme of the wine list. They may be included because of the sommelier’s personal passion, or area of expertise, or because they were just too good to pass up. They’ll fall under headings like “Other Reds” “Unusual Blends” “Regional Wines,” or they’ll be in a wee little section all on their own. There might be a suspiciously large section of incongruous wines, like a long list of champagnes at a sports bar, or a collection of crisp, dry whites at a steakhouse. There’s really no operational reason for such outliers to be on a list — they take up space and cost money in inventory. But they’re there because someone’s passionate about them, and likely priced to move, lest the sommelier lose his/her job.
Tip #3: Buy local
No matter where you are, if wine grows locally, it will likely offer some of the best odds on the list. Sommeliers are generally proud and excited to share local wines with guests, and in order to encourage sales, the prices are made attractive. If you really want to drink Bordeaux in Burgundy, or Napa in Niagara, well then, you’ll pay the best odds to the house.
Next week: tips #4-7.
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John Szabo is a master sommelier and wine writer for Toronto Standard. Follow his tweets here: @johnszabo.
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