You walk into a beautiful restaurant and are greeted with a menu and a wine list. Wine is such an important part of the meal that you are effectively opting out by not ordering because nothing elevates your dining experience like wine. Unfortunately, too many local restaurants have a very backward philosophy when it comes to their wine programs.
The best restaurants in the country employ someone called a sommelier, or beverage director. It may sound like a snooty title, but their job is to sort through thousands and thousands of wines to present you with a curated list of wine selections. This list that they put together may tell a story, it may educate, it certainly enhances the food and it challenges you to try something new. The wine list is always a reflection of what that restaurant aspires to be. This does not mean that they buy the rarest or most expensive wines. It means they find great values, great experiences and great matches for their menus and ambiance.
Many years ago, I worked as a sommelier in California. It was total wine education immersion. My favorite part of the job was turning people on to new things — that shared enthusiasm of discovery. Can you have a great wine program without a sommelier? Absolutely. While sommeliers are often either self-taught or mentored, there is a certification program that separates a wine buyer from a sommelier. Some of the best beverage programs in Ohio are run by chefs or beverage managers, however.
So, what’s my beef with (some) Toledo wine programs? Brand names. We just had a friend over for dinner last night and we were talking about restaurants. She mentioned a brand new beautiful place whose wine list she considered questionable because she recognized all of the names from a chain grocery store.
She’s right. That’s a subpar wine program. It’s bad because the beverage director decided to either hand their program over to a distributor or choose names everyone would recognize from the grocery store.
The latter may seem like an easy enough road to take. The problem with those wines is they are of the lowest common denominator. They are wines of massive production and massive availability. Giant grocery chains have no choice but to rely heavily on these types of wines due to logistical constraints. Homogenization is the enemy of quality in wine. Would that very same beautiful new restaurant buy Prego spaghetti sauce? No, they would of course make their own.
Ask questions about the wine you are about to order. If the restaurant can’t give their reason for putting that wine on their wine list, then they view it as a commodity. My hope is for all independently owned restaurants in the Toledo area to treat their wine (and beer) program as a tool to make the experience better for the consumers. There are forces with deep pockets and influence that try to keep the business homogenized. They de-emphasize individuality and education. Many local restaurants have forged their own path and created tremendous wine programs. They train their staff, research, read books and taste countless wines, all to benefit the end consumer.
If you’re going to pay a markup for restaurant wine, your money is wasted on anything you can grab at a gas station or chain grocery store.
Adam Mahler is the founder of Ampelography, a wine sales and marketing company based in Toledo (ampelographywines.com). He can be reached at adam@ampelographywines.com.
