Wine Menus Without Vintages: Hmmm…?
Knowing what to look for on the “Wine List” is extremely helpful when ordering at a restaurant. Listing all the details of each wine can be overwhelming for both the restaurant and the guest. To simplify the process for both, there is critical and basic information that should be listed that is easy to present to initially help the guest make a choice. Vintage is one of the key details initially.
Some wine lists at restaurants offer a book of labels of wines in their respective varietal categories. It’s fun to show for the restaurant as it can also entice the guest to choose a wine based on the artistry of the label over the details of the wine. It can also help the guest by presenting all the pertinent details of the wine from the winery. However, it can be too much and too bulky.
Then, there are the restaurants with large selections and minimal details that the guest is left to essentially guess. With large selections, this can be satisfactory but, for the guest who has a fair idea of which wine they would prefer, this is insufficient.
If the vintages are not listed with the winery and varietal, the guest must now guess whether they are offering a stronger or weaker vintage. Interestingly, listing the vintage is a critical item in the description. Without it, the guest must ask for the bottle first and review the label themselves so they can confirm it is a choice they want. This can be problematic unless there is a sommelier on staff to assist. Therefore, it is vital that the listing shows a current vintage available to minimize the potential for continuous back and forth of bringing out bottle after bottle just because the guest could not find it on the list. Further, it could also mean the restaurant got a deal on an off, or weaker, vintage, and is trying to sell it at a premium consistent with the better vintages.
Bottom line: whether the wine list provides all or some of the details of the wines, it is incumbent upon the guest to check the labels first before making the choice to insure they receive the desired vintage. If they do not carry the vintage desired then, likely champagne or a cocktail might be preferred.
