Brett
Guest
7 Questions You Should Never (ever) Ask a Wine Pro
https://www.wsj.com/articles/questions-you-should-never-ask-wine-pros-11648049720
1. What’s good on this list?
Rick Arline, beverage director of Girl & the Goat in Chicago, hears this one a lot. If someone asks this question, Mr. Arline might answer, “Everything is good. That’s why it’s here.” And he’s likely to follow up with a few questions of his own, to find out what kinds of wines the customer likes. Red or white, full-bodied or light? He might suggest the diner start with a sparkling wine—like the rosé of Raventós from Penedès, Spain, that he features by the glass—as they consider their options.
4. Do you have wines without sulfites? There are many misconceptions about sulfites, and the biggest one may be that there is such thing as a non-sulfite wine. Sulfites are a natural byproduct of
5. What do you think of this wine? This sounds like an innocent enough inquiry, but Erik Liedholm, wine director of Seattle’s John Howie restaurant group, knows it can be fraught. “People want validation,” he observed. This question can be especially tricky when posed regarding a wine the customer brought along to the meal. (Mr. Liedholm allows diners to BYOB to his restaurants, including the flagship Seastar, on Sundays for free and other times for a fee.) When the wine in ques
6. Do you have any dry wines? Jim Rollston, wine director of Manresa Restaurant in Los Gatos, Calif., fields this one a lot. “I don’t necessarily hate the question,” he said. “It’s just so hard to know what people mean by dry.” He might respond by asking which dry wines the diner favors. “They might say, ‘I like Rombauer Chardonnay’ or ‘red blends,’ and that tells me something,” he said. (Neither is actually on the drier end of the scale.) Or he might ask directly what they mean by dry. “And they might say, ‘Something not too sour.’ ” Mr. Rollston could recommend the opposite, a ripe, fruity wine such as a Pinot Noir from California—though fur
7 . Do you have any orange wines? Longtime Brooklyn-based sommelier Lee Campbell has fielded the orange wine question a lot from “hipster clients” who, she said, are blind to every other kind of wine. It’s not that she is opposed to orange wine, or hasn’t had orange wines on her lists. It’s just the current singleminded fixation that she resists. “People are obsessed with orange wine,” Ms. Campbell said—particularly galling when they wouldn’t be able to recognize an orange wine unless it was designated as such on the wine list. (An orange wine is a white wine made “orange” by various means, including extended skin contact and/or deliberate oxidation.) To discourage a knee-jerk selection, Ms. Campbell, currently a freelance consultant, doesn’t separate orange wines into their own category but, rather, lists them with the white wines. “There is
https://www.wsj.com/articles/questions-you-should-never-ask-wine-pros-11648049720
1. What’s good on this list?
Rick Arline, beverage director of Girl & the Goat in Chicago, hears this one a lot. If someone asks this question, Mr. Arline might answer, “Everything is good. That’s why it’s here.” And he’s likely to follow up with a few questions of his own, to find out what kinds of wines the customer likes. Red or white, full-bodied or light? He might suggest the diner start with a sparkling wine—like the rosé of Raventós from Penedès, Spain, that he features by the glass—as they consider their options.
4. Do you have wines without sulfites? There are many misconceptions about sulfites, and the biggest one may be that there is such thing as a non-sulfite wine. Sulfites are a natural byproduct of
5. What do you think of this wine? This sounds like an innocent enough inquiry, but Erik Liedholm, wine director of Seattle’s John Howie restaurant group, knows it can be fraught. “People want validation,” he observed. This question can be especially tricky when posed regarding a wine the customer brought along to the meal. (Mr. Liedholm allows diners to BYOB to his restaurants, including the flagship Seastar, on Sundays for free and other times for a fee.) When the wine in ques
6. Do you have any dry wines? Jim Rollston, wine director of Manresa Restaurant in Los Gatos, Calif., fields this one a lot. “I don’t necessarily hate the question,” he said. “It’s just so hard to know what people mean by dry.” He might respond by asking which dry wines the diner favors. “They might say, ‘I like Rombauer Chardonnay’ or ‘red blends,’ and that tells me something,” he said. (Neither is actually on the drier end of the scale.) Or he might ask directly what they mean by dry. “And they might say, ‘Something not too sour.’ ” Mr. Rollston could recommend the opposite, a ripe, fruity wine such as a Pinot Noir from California—though fur
7 . Do you have any orange wines? Longtime Brooklyn-based sommelier Lee Campbell has fielded the orange wine question a lot from “hipster clients” who, she said, are blind to every other kind of wine. It’s not that she is opposed to orange wine, or hasn’t had orange wines on her lists. It’s just the current singleminded fixation that she resists. “People are obsessed with orange wine,” Ms. Campbell said—particularly galling when they wouldn’t be able to recognize an orange wine unless it was designated as such on the wine list. (An orange wine is a white wine made “orange” by various means, including extended skin contact and/or deliberate oxidation.) To discourage a knee-jerk selection, Ms. Campbell, currently a freelance consultant, doesn’t separate orange wines into their own category but, rather, lists them with the white wines. “There is
