How to Make a Wine List

Video Transcript

"My goal in creating a wine list is to try and provide something for every taste of wine drinker. I'd like to find a little sweet white, maybe a little tart white, maybe something buttery. I'd like to have as many different ports of call as possible. If I can have things from all over the world, then that makes just that much more variety and that much more fun. At the same time, I like to try and find things that are very definitive of what they are. A Chardonnay from California that is absolutely noticeable the minute you taste it, as a Chardonnay from California for instance. I also like to look for things that are a little off the beaten path. Maybe things that you wouldn't believe are a Chardonnay from California or that don't taste like them, or that are made in a different style. I also look for French style of wine made in New Zealand or New Zealand style of wine made in France. Anything that will allow the guest to have that much more enjoyment from the depth of my wine list. So here's a couple of examples from my wine list to illustrate my point. The Hopler Gruner Veltliner is an absolutely definitely Gruner Veltliner from Austria, whereas the Claiborne and Churchill Dry Gewurstraminer is very unusual for a Gewurstraminer. First of all it was made in San Luis Obispo, California, and secondly it's dry with a little bit of tartness and just a bit of residual sugar. On the other side, we have the Shannon Ridge Chardonnay which is an extremely definitely California Chardonnay, oaky, buttery. And then next to that we have an Albarino which really drinks more like a light summer Portuguese white. So, it gives you a little bit of what you'd be familiar with, and some things that you might not expect."