"wine list" news and stories

My 'Bete Rouge': Red Wine. Photo by bhollar/Flickr

This last weekend, much to our dismay, my wife and I drank our first $300 bottle of wine.

Our neighborhood in the Bronx is not blessed with an overabundance of great restaurants, so we have learned to turn a blind eye to the shortcomings of our local dives. For example, one of our favorite places has outstanding food and is beautifully decorated, but also has incredibly aggressive waiters who endlessly try to upsell us. Still, in the grand scheme of things, we've decided that pushy waiters are the kind of thing that we can overlook, particularly when the restaurant makes the kind of adoration-worthy pizzas that are its stock-in-trade.

Last weekend, a few old college friends were in town for a visit, so we took them there. After we ordered a couple of appetizers and three of the restaurant's distinctive gourmet pizzas, my wife picked a reasonably priced Italian red that seemed like a good bet to accompany our meal. A few minutes later, the waiter returned to double check on our order. My wife, who was dealing with our daughter at the time, glanced at the wine he pointed to, noted the name, and replied that, yes, it was the one we wanted.

If I were a famous musician who went on tour a lot, I'm not quite sure what special demands I'd have. I think I'd want a TV in my dressing room and maybe a few snacks and drinks for me and my friends, but I can't really think of anything outrageous. Remember when Van Halen demanded no brown M&Ms?

Now take a look at what Diana Krall wants. This is a wine list that would make the Gallos jealous. This isn't what she has in her wine cellar; this is what she wants in her dressing room when she's on tour in North America. Obviously, she doesn't want all of them, it's just a list of wines she'll accept. There's Clos Pegase Cabernet Sauvignon, Falesco from Italy, D'Arenberg Shirz "The Laughing Magpipe," Landmark Chardonnay (2001, 2002, and 2003) and a ton more.

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The world of wine can be intimidating, so you have to go into it with a few rules, and David LeClaire, the sommelier at The Tasting Room in Seattle, has some advice, including:

1. There's no such thing as peanut greg-io. Learn how to pronounce the big names, or you're going to sound like a big geek. You don't need to know everything - and it's OK to stumble on the obscure French boutiques - but do yourself a favor and take "Gewurztraminer" out for a spin before your big date.

7. Move over, Scrooge McDuck. More expensive wine is not always better, especially in the store (bottom-shelf shoppers, rejoice!). But, since a bottle of wine in a restaurant is marked up, by up to three times its retail price (four times for wines by the glass), the cheapest bottle you'll want to buy in a restaurant is $30, says LeClaire. If you're watching pennies, go for wines from Spain, Chile, Argentina or Australia - they're good and half the price.

A liquor order made by George Washington in August, 1776, was recently put on display at a whiskey trade show in Chicago. The list, which belongs to the Distilled Spirits Council of the United States, includes orders for cases of claret, muscat wine and cordials as well as a keg of brandy and a request for "2 cheeses—old—58 lb.," according to the Chicago Sun-Times. The Sun-Times quotes a spokesman at Mount Vernon Estates and Gardens who says that the supply was not likely to be Washington's private stash, but rather for entertaining officers and guests.