“Who would like the wine list”? It’s a simple question, and yet it can often inspire anxiety around a dinner table. For starters, the table in question is usually outside the comfort of your home—where you may be used to drinking wine in your sweatpants after a long work day. You might also be surrounded by professional colleagues, picky friends, or parents who will absolutely judge you if you order the wrong Zinfandel. Whatever the case, it’s understandable if you feel some pressure to choose the “right" wine and not disappoint anyone at a restaurant. Nobody wants to be responsible for ordering an oddly colored wine from a place nobody can quite pronounce that tastes like a cross between your dog’s favorite chew toy and the cracked leather on your worn-in handbag.
Unless you have spent years studying the wine world and all the wonderous ways in which wines are not only labeled but also marketed and sold, picking a bottle can be quite daunting; all the more so if you’re at a restaurant with a September issue-sized wine list packed with 200-plus bottles. As someone who has spent years doing so, however, I know a few tricks to navigating the abyss with (relative) ease and (perhaps a pinch of) enjoyment.
Step One: Know Your Audience
It sounds simple, but it’s much easier to choose a crowd-pleaser if you ask a few simple questions at the start of the process. Do your guests want white or red? (“Both” is also an acceptable answer.) What style or type of wine do they enjoy? Chardonnay? Cabernet? Wine from the US? Wine from Italy? Once you’ve figured out a color and maybe even a varietal—or at least a flavor profile—there is no stopping you.
Understanding what type of wine or general style your group enjoys will allow you to focus on a particular page or section of the wine list without getting bogged down in the minutiae of items you have no interest in. Light-bodied red wine from America? A pinot noir from California’s Sonoma Coast or Oregon is likely your best bet. Full-bodied earthy red wine from France? Look at Rhône Valley or Bordeaux. How much easier to simply turn to page 25 or flip over the one-page wine list to find “Light-Bodied Reds,” and voila! A one- or two-page wine list will likely only have up to five selections for each varietal, so choosing a bottle should be less of a challenge. More than likely, your group also has a price ceiling, so once you find your section, the right-hand side of the page can become your quick decision-making friend.
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Step Two: Make Friends with the Table of Contents
Larger wine lists tend to have a table of contents so you know what you’re getting yourself into. And while smaller lists may seem to forgo this concept, they likely still follow a similar pattern. Most wine lists are organized in one of four ways:
1: By region
2: By varietal
3: By bottle size
4: By flavor profile (i.e. lightest to heaviest)
Even without a table of contents, you can feel confident a wine list will start with some selection of champagne, sparkling wine, cava, and prosecco. If a restaurant offers half bottles or magnums, those will be listed before standard 750ml bottles and after, respectively. If you know your group wants to pass on bubbles, you can skip over the first section of the list entirely.
Once your table has chosen a color and price point, you can begin to narrow down your options further. Let’s say for the sake of argument you are going straight to red wine; whether you want lighter-bodied (think pinot noir, Barolo, grenache, or even some Sangiovese) or fuller-bodied (Cabernet Sauvignon, Cabernet Franc, or Syrah), wines will be listed first by region and secondly by weight on your palette. Typically, that listing looks like this:
France
Burgundy: Here, you'll find lighter-bodied reds made up of pinot noir grapes. This section has the potential to encompass nearby regions like Alsace where light-bodied reds may be made but are not the flagship grape; something to be mindful of as you navigate the wines of this country.
Northern and Southern Rhône: Think Grenache, Cinsault, and Mourvèdre in the south—those, too, were just listed lightest to heaviest—and Syrah in the north.
Bordeaux: One more separation to be mindful of is between the Left Bank (Cabernet Sauvignon, Cabernet Franc, and Merlot) and the Right Bank (Merlot, Merlot, Merlot!)
Of course, there are other wine-growing regions in France, but many restaurant wine lists combine them into one section titled “Other Reds” or list them within one of the categories above.
Italy
Tuscany: Think light to medium-bodied red wine that pairs well with all things pasta, pizza, and some lighter meat dishes like roast chicken, roast quail, and pork of almost any kind.
Barolo: These light-in-body, higher-acid red wines come from the country's northwest. If you have Pinot lovers at the table who want to try something new, this is your landing zone!
Brunello di Montalcino: This medium-bodied red wine is fantastic with red meat and earthy accoutrements like mushrooms and hearty green vegetables.
Veneto: Look here for full-bodied red wines. While Venice and its surrounding regions are famous for their fish dishes, their wine takes an unexpected turn and is much richer and weightier than the type you might think to pair with squid-ink risotto.
Amarone: For those who love full-bodied red wine and port, this may be your holy grail section. If you’re curious to try a red wine that drinks more like a port, look no further.
Spain or the United States
Depending on the restaurant, one of these regions will likely come third after France and Italy, with the other region following. If they break these sections down further, restaurants will often only list California, Oregon, and Washington under the US, while Spain will be divided by region (think Rioja into Ribera del Duero into Priorat) due to Tempranillo reigning supreme as the king of all Spanish grapes.
In my experience, unless you are dining at a Spanish restaurant or have a guest in your group who is still pining for their youthful days spent in “Barthelona,” Spanish wines are not necessarily a crowd favorite and are usually best left to the suggestions of a sommelier based on your preference for lighter-bodied (Rioja, Ribera del Duero) or fuller-bodied wines (Priorat and Catalonia).
After Spain and the US, most wine lists highlight Germany, South Africa, New Zealand, Argentina, and sometimes Chile. Knowing this general layout will save you time thumbing back and forth the list while adverting the gazes of your dining partners as they wait, sometimes patiently, for that liquid courage or ease of conversation that follows that first glorious sip of wine.
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Step Three: Be Open to Surprises (And Asking for Help)
This is by no means an exhaustive method for choosing the perfect bottle of wine—in part because wine lists, like everything in the restaurant world, have been flipped on their head post-pandemic. Sometimes, there is no rhyme or reason to how a restaurant structures its wine list. Worst case scenario? Decide on a price point and hand the list back to the sommelier or manager with a few notes about what style you are looking for, then sit back, relax, and enjoy your meal.
Also, while I focused exclusively on red wine here, suffice it to say the same general rules apply when choosing a bottle of white wine. France will almost always come first, with Champagne leading the charge, followed by the other main regions cataloged above, grouped by producer, and following the same light-to-full-bodied structure. Keep in mind, though, that it is not uncommon for white wines to be grouped by varietal (i.e., all chardonnays together), which allows for more exploration of a preferred varietal but can also lead to some initial confusion. If this is the case, return to step two: the table of contents is your friend!
At the end of the day, wine is meant to be shared and enjoyed. Try not to let the daunting task of picking the “right” wine deter you from asking a few simple questions or waving the white flag and asking for help. In all my years working as a sommelier, I rarely met one who didn’t like the sound of their own voice. Happy ordering, and cheers to you and your wine selection!
Danielle Aita has spent 20 years working in the wine and food business, including 10 years as a sommelier for world-class chefs Thomas Keller, Daniel Humm, and Nancy Oakes. For the past eight years, she has been the Brand Ambassador for Colgin Cellars, the only American winery included in LVMH Group’s Vins d’Exception, alongside Chateau Cheval Blanc, Chateau d’Yquem, and Domaine du Clos de Lambray. She currently lives in Napa Valley.