Comments on: Just Give Me a Glass of Your House White

By: Momzilla

2006-10-18T03:16:58Z

I’m am wine impaired. I love wine, but I’m ignorant. I know what I like and I like what I know. I just can’t quite taste all those fruits, herbs, and woods. If I’m searching for that faint undertone of oak, I guess I should be outside chewing on a tree while gulping my favorite white of the week. That said, restaurant wine lists are indeed confusing and overwhelming. It shouldn’t take me 30 miinutes to peruse the list. As suggested, there should be a more simplified, categoric method of going through the list. Grey Moss Inn has a wonderful system, which I wish could become the standard. Alternatively, for a small or new restaurant that is just having enough problems finding waitstaff and a sommelier isn’t in the cards, I would suggest hiring a consultant to pair wines with menu items. I have a couple of my favorite restaurants that have suggested wine selections on the menu opposite each menu item… listed in order of price. What a great concept for the wine-impaired such as myself. I already know that the suggested wines are stocked in their cellar and have been (hopefully) picked to enhance the menu choice (or sometimes it’s the other way around with me…. wine to compliment food or food to compliment wine). This gives me an opportunity to try new wines that I haven’t tried, paired with foods that bring out the best in the wine (or vice versa…. where was I?). I think any up and coming restaurant should make a small initial investment in a good wine consultant to help match menu items with their wines, put the wines on the menu right there with the menu item, and stock their cellar accordingly. Suggested beers, cordials, and dessert pairings would really complete my fantasy.

But, forget all of this. Bass Pro Shops officially opens in San Antonio in less than 24 hours… food and wine are on the backburner.

By: davidd57

2006-10-17T22:59:56Z

White wines should always be served at proper celler temperature, I hate when restaurants serve these at room temperature and expect to offer the best expression of the wine.

By: Coastman

2006-10-17T13:51:39Z

The glass of “house white”. What a misnomer. So many establishments take this opportunity to sell you a glass of rather inferior product for $4.00–$5.00 per glass. If they happen to offer better wines by the glass, then it jumps to $7.00–$9.00 per glass. This is offensive. Rather than encourage patrons to experiment with new wines and food pairings, the restaurants seem to punish customers with their price structure. Maybe they just do not care and are merely attempting to maximize profit. Too bad. These restaurants rarely make my list of frequent stops.

By: mayorsat

2006-10-17T02:11:13Z

I hate to say this, but… Americans can learn a lot about wine in restaurants from the Italians!

When in Italy, always ask your waiter if there is a house wine. Invaribly, Italian restaurants will offer a house wine at around $10.00 Euros to $12.50 Euros that will compete with any of the $60.00 Euro bottles on the wine list. If you feel compeled to spend more, go ahead. But, you’ll spend more for not that much better wine.

American restaurants would do well to nuture and offer their own, reasonable house wine.

By: lovestoeat

2006-10-15T02:00:13Z

I always order wine by taste, and the taste I like is dry, not sweet, in every wine I drink, from Cabernet to Chardonnay. I went to The Contessa Hotel restaurant on the San Antonio River Walk the other day. It served Spanish food (from Spain), and it had a great wine list and knowledgeable waiter who helped us order a great red wine. I wish now that I had remembered what it was. But I DO remember the restaurant and the wait staff and will go there again.