Sommelier Breaks Down How to Order Wine Like a Pro

Bon Appétit

Feeling overwhelmed by wine lists at restaurants? Sommelier André Hueston Mack returns to Bon Appétit to teach you how to confidently order wine like a pro. Whether you’re a casual drinker or just starting to explore the world of wine, André breaks down everything you need to know–from decoding tricky wine lists to mastering the perfect wine-tasting etiquette.

Transcript

00:00Hey, I'm sommelier Andre Houston Mack, and today I'm going to teach you how to order wine like a

00:04pro in a restaurant. From picking wines to ordering wines and to that very first taste,

00:09this is how I drink wine in a restaurant.

00:15So when you're ordering wine in the restaurant, what are your priorities? You want to feel

00:18confident in what you're doing and how you're ordering. And then probably the most important

00:23thing, you want to get your money's worth. And I think that's a common ground that we can all

00:27stand on. This can be extremely, extremely intimidating, but it doesn't really have to

00:32be. There's some key things that you need to understand that can make you feel confident in

00:36any situation. I think we should start off with ordering the wine. You walk into the restaurant,

00:40when should you order your wine? When should you be looking at the wine list? What happens is you

00:45sit down, you greet it, you're seated, you're handed menus, and generally a wine list. They're trying to

00:51get you started. A cocktail or something to drink at the beginning is somewhat of a pacifier, right?

00:56It keeps us interested. We can look at the menu, build an appetite. Conversely, on the other side,

01:02generally, you selected the wine after you chose what food you were going to have. Peruse the menu,

01:06figure out what you would like and what other guests at the table are going to be ordering,

01:11and then from that, you can order your wine. To make for a more seamless dining experience,

01:17it's best that you probably choose all the wine ahead of time. After you've ordered the food,

01:21and then you've ordered the different wines that you want to have,

01:23a lot of times when there's lots of wine ordered up front, the server will come over to you or the

01:27sommelier will come over to you and come up with a game plan on when you'd like to see those wines

01:32and serve which dishes. So the more information at the beginning, because you're already ordering,

01:37means less times that the server or somebody from the restaurant has to come back and interrupt.

01:42Let's just talk about wine lists. A wine list is just really a list of inventory, and it can be as basic

01:47as that. Here is a wine list. This has 69 pages in it. It's pretty thorough. This is from a Michelin

01:53two-star restaurant saga. So this is upper echelon. First thing that you see is wine pairings, and then

01:58you have wines by the glass. This is kind of a window inside the rest of the list. The wines by the glass

02:03should be the foundation of what the list is built on. So there'll be offerings here for sections that

02:09they believe deeply in or that they have a depth and breadth selection on the wine list. Wines by the glass

02:14would generally have been open or could have been open, you know, reputable restaurants one day,

02:19two days. And so some people think that you may not be getting the freshest, but also you get to pay

02:24a fraction of the price to just have a glass and not be committed to a bottle. You do pay a premium.

02:29Some places it could be the bottle cost to the restaurant just for one glass, right? That preserves

02:34the cost. Wine is a living, breathing thing and goes bad once it's open and exposed to oxygen. So

02:39ideally, you know, the restaurant wants to be able to break even by charging what they pay for by the

02:46glass. From wines by the glass, you'll jump into your bottle listing, what they call the list from

02:51sparkling to white wine, to red wine, and maybe it's a sweet wine or what they would call dessert wine.

02:57And then from there, it's really broken down geographically from country and then from country

03:02into region and so forth. You're flipping through the list. It doesn't make any sense. Your mind is

03:06is turning and spinning. And at this point, I feel like you should summon the sommelier or let your

03:12waiter know that you'd like to talk to someone about wine. The sommelier is basically a wine waiter.

03:18I talk a lot about guests coming into the restaurant and just giving up their power completely. And you

03:22shouldn't. You shouldn't give away your power. The whole idea is that you're an expert in what you

03:25like. The tour guide is there. So you want to convey to them what wines you'd like to drink for

03:30tonight. In the case of like you not being able to describe what you like, you can just say,

03:34we love Chilean wine. And as a sommelier, you know, we're kind of like detectives,

03:38right? Like trying to pick up clues, trying to figure it out. Chilean wines, if you like

03:42Carmenere from Chile, you know, we really don't have anything on the list, but you know, maybe I

03:45can find you something. The most important thing about this whole situation or the dialogue that

03:50we're currently in is the budget. Have a budget and be upfront and clear about that. So we all know

03:56the playing field. At dinner with your friends, you know, I think the last thing that you kind of want

04:00to be blurting out is prices of anything. I've always, you know, encouraged people to just point

04:05to a price point on the wine list. So you just say, hey, you know what, we'd love for you to choose

04:09several bottles of wine for us tonight. We'd really like to stick around this per bottle. And then that

04:13really conveys to them, okay, they have their marching orders, choose the wines based on on the

04:17dishes coming out. And really, the pressure is not on you anymore. So at this point, you can just kind

04:22of sit back and wait for the wines to be presented to you. When we talk about presentation,

04:27this is probably somewhat more scary to a lot of people than actually ordering, you know,

04:31the wine initially. When the wine is presented to you, it should be presented fully closed. It means

04:36that it hasn't been opened. It hasn't been manipulated. What's in the bottle has always

04:40been what's in the bottle. There's exceptions to that rule. If you came to the restaurant

04:44and you asked me, Andre said, can you select the wines for us? And I said, yes, I would show up to

04:50your table with this bottle of wine open because I tasted it in the back already. I need to make sure that

04:55that wine is tasting the way that I've known its taste and reinforce the fact on why I select it

05:00with those courses. So I would pour myself a small, tiny taste, taste it. And then I would present it

05:04to the guests and say, this is what I have selected for you. One of the important things here is just to

05:09confirm that all the things on the label are what you were on the wine list. So this is the correct

05:13bottle of wine that you ordered. If you want to get what you paid for it. As it's being presented to you,

05:18they'll talk you through it. They'll say, this is Don Melkor. This is Cabernet Sauvignon. This is 2021.

05:23So you want to pay attention to, is this the name of the wine that I ordered? Okay, correct.

05:28Is this the varietal that I ordered? I ordered Cabernet Sauvignon. I ordered the 2021. Yes,

05:33those are all correct. Secondly, a lot of the wine labels look exactly the same. So different cuvées

05:38can just have a slight name underneath it. And it's just one word that could mean,

05:43you know, two to $300 price hike. As you're going through confirming these things, at some point,

05:47you want to touch the bottle with the back of your finger. And I kind of follow along,

05:50but I touch the bottle. I can touch the label underneath, but I touch it with the

05:53back of my index finger very ever so slightly. And that's a way for me to check the temperature

05:58without grabbing it like this when they have it and putting my hands all over it.

06:03Most red wines in restaurants are served too warm. When you serve warm wine,

06:08it really accentuates the alcohol and you don't really get to taste the nuances of like what you

06:14paid for. If it's cold to touch, then it should be great. But if it's not, doesn't have a chill on it or

06:18that, uh, upon tasting it, just to reconfirm, you might want to ask them to dip it in an ice bucket

06:23for two or three minutes. At this point, they're ready to present the wine. They're ready to open

06:28it. Whoever orders the wine is to be presented the wine by the sommelier to receive a taste of that

06:33wine. I think a lot of people are nervous at this point. They're just asking you to bless it. You're the

06:38king, right? They're asking you to bless it. So you should feel confident in that. And this is freehand.

06:43So I didn't leave the table. I'm standing right beside you. And a lot of restaurants don't allow this. They,

06:47they want it to be on a surface. So you have it like this and they'll start opening it. I'm standing

06:51here. The label is still here. So all your guests can still look at me and see what we order. And at

06:56that point, you know, the glass is to the right of the guests. You would go in and pour this taste.

07:01This is kind of the weird part, right? Where you're just kind of expected to know what to do.

07:06You're supposed to be evaluating the wine, tasting the wine for soundness. Really what that means is

07:11you're tasting the wine to see if it's spoiled or if it's gone bad or is affected by cork taint. So

07:16swirling the wine. Swirling the wine is just aerating, right? So it's been in the bottle

07:20anywhere from two years to 50 years, whenever. Hasn't received any air. So when they pour your

07:25taste, you want some of the off odors to blow off, right? It's been cooped up in the bottle.

07:30So you want to aerate the wine a little bit. So to get some air into it, you want to swirl. At this

07:34point, you know, if you're uncomfortable with taking it off the table like that, a lot of people just do

07:38this. And you know, this is a way of aerating the wine. You want to put your nose in it and like,

07:44don't be afraid. You know, I got a big nose. So like, you know, put it in the glass and you want

07:47to inhale through your nose and exhale through your mouth. Opens up your factory senses. You

07:51wanted to smell, are there any off odors? Does it smell like rotten eggs? Does it smell like vinegar?

07:55Those would be faults that would indicate that the wine has spoiled. In this situation,

07:59like it's all, it can be a learning experience. So, you know, follow your nose. The person is still

08:03standing next to you. So you can say to small, he's like, Hey, you know, this smells a little off.

08:07Can you like confirm this or can you smell this too? And they will gladly smell it. That's how you're

08:12learning, right? Just because you're spending the money doesn't mean that you can't learn from it.

08:16And I think that's, what's great. If you don't smell any of those, then you can move on to tasting.

08:19Are you tasting this wine to see if you like this wine? The answer is no. You're not tasting the wine

08:25to see if you like the wine. That's not the purpose of this thing. It is to see if the wine is sound.

08:29If there was a chance or an opportunity that you said you didn't like this wine because the way it

08:33tasted, this would probably be the moment to say that. So I know I'm wishy-washy. You're like,

08:37Dre, what you saying here? But like to simply taste it and say, I don't like it. Ultimately

08:42in a restaurant, they're not going to make you pay for it. They can take it back.

08:45But like that's frowned upon. And that's always a gray area. At this point,

08:49everything's good to go. All they're looking for is some type of communication, whether that's a

08:55head nod, verbal, thumbs up, anything like that. And that just signals to the sommelier that he should

09:01share the wine with your guests. And now the fun part in the part that we're all good at drinking it.

09:06Peep the scenario. We're looking at it. We're at the table. We've been enjoying some white wine.

09:11They put the white wine on ice. It's on a bucket. You're like, okay, should I pour the wine or should

09:15I not pour it? Depending on what restaurant you are in, if it's on an ice bucket on the table,

09:20then to me that means that you have access to it and you should by all means pour your own wine.

09:25If it was in the ice bucket and off the table and like on a stand, then I wouldn't go over and pick

09:31it up and pour it. Get someone's attention. You know, somebody walking by and you said,

09:34hey, you know, we'd love a little bit more wine and let them do that work. We're going to hop into

09:39my mindset here. I'm working this table and I look at it and say, okay, all right,

09:43this person's glass is empty and everybody's really low. You never want to get to this point,

09:47right? Where a guest has no wine in their glass. Because this glass is empty, I would pour this

09:52person first. But even when I come to the table, everybody has varying levels of wine in the glass.

09:57I would come back in and top everybody else off. And it doesn't single out the person who's

10:02drinking fast. If I only came to the table three times in a row, just to fill up one person,

10:06everybody else is noticing me come to the table and only pouring that one person. So I would start

10:10with that person and then I would top everybody off very lightly. If this person is drinking fast,

10:15I want to make sure I hold some back because they might drink their wine before they finish their

10:19food, which would leave you in a place where, you know, they have half a dish left and the wine is

10:24empty. Ideally, I never want to pour out a bottle of wine on one initial round of the table.

10:29You know, now if it gets up to 12 people or something like that, I think I've made it around

10:33the table, 12 or 13 people, one bottle of wine. So being able to pour evenly so everybody got a

10:37taste. So I kind of pride myself in that. But if there's a five top, five people at the table,

10:41six people at the table, one bottle of wine, I'm going to pour enough for everybody to have a taste

10:45in their glass and there'll still be wine left over. I get this question all the time, like,

10:49can you bring your own wine to a restaurant? And most places, I believe that it operates in somewhat

10:54of a gray area. Generally speaking, if you have a liquor license, you're not allowed

10:58to let people bring their own alcohol in. But a lot of restaurants make an exception to that,

11:03especially here in New York City. But there is a fee that's associated within most restaurants,

11:08$5 Corkage, $6 Corkage, all the way up to $175 for Corkage. And that's the right to open a bottle

11:16of wine in that restaurant. Corkage fees are really high because the restaurants really don't want you to

11:20bring your own wine. It's kind of like showing up to a steakhouse with your own ribeye. They don't

11:24really want you to do that, but they understand, you know, the magic in wine. They understand that,

11:28like, maybe you have a special bottle that, you know, that you have sentimental value to,

11:33or something like that, and you want to enjoy it with this great meal. So people aren't just bringing

11:37run-of-the-mill bottles. They're bringing, you know, stuff that generally in a lot of the high-end

11:41restaurants, things that are considered priceless. The high and the steep Corkage fees are there,

11:47so it's not a free-for-all and you don't negate the system. It's not to be confused with the BYOB

11:52places that, you know, there's a lot of them in New Jersey, and then, you know, some in New York

11:56as well, where they don't have a liquor license and you're welcome to bring wine in. It's not as

12:00laxed or free like that. Generally speaking, if it's a place that has, it uses a term Porkage,

12:05and they charge you to bring those bottles in, then that's a different type of BYOB,

12:09where you're not hands-on with the bottles that you bring in. You're expected to surrender those to

12:14the restaurant and they will open in and do the service on those wines and bring them to the table

12:18at the appropriate time. Hopefully by walking you through this, you feel a little bit more confident that

12:22it's really just a head nod and a finger up and A-OK. This is meant for everybody. You too can

12:28enjoy wine at any different level, no matter what the cost of the bottle. Those are all the same

12:32steps that you have to go through. So hopefully that makes you a little bit more comfortable.

12:36If not, hit me in the DM and I'll talk to you some more. That sounded weird.

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