wine menus - worth the price?

Ed Rasimus wrote: respectfully snipped>

Hi Ed, I also avoid "trendy". To me, trendy refers to folks who have more money than taste, or common sense. I would totally discount any chefs who haven't heard of Julia Child. I'm always on the lookout for restaurants that have good food and a reasonable wine list. In a pinch, I look for "Good eats, good beer". :-)

Dick R.

Fortunately, I've had good luck with what I term "Sommelier's Tasting" menus. These have almost always accompanied a "Chef's Tasting" menu. From Charlie Trotter's, to French Laundry, to Aureole, to name a few, I usually try both, if available. In the last few years, I've only had one stinker and that was locally at a WS Grand Award Winner, where they removed the Spigleaus and used "restaurant-grade jelly jars" for the "Sommelier's tasting!" When I asked, I was told that the better glasses were reserved for those having "good" wine. Well, that was definitely the case, as none of these were "good" wines, and at US$65/person + the chef's tasting ~US$125, it was not acceptable. It seemed that the sommelier had gone into the cellar and was cleaning out the junk that salespeople had dropped off - nothing was good (in the jelly jars, who can really tell), and nothing paired with the food served. One out of maybe two- dozen is pretty good odds, or pretty good luck on my part.

I think it is a great idea, BUT should be carefully thought out. It must not be looked at as a way to mark the hell up out of poor wine, and serve it to patrons in the hopes that they will be too dazzeled by the sheer # of items to notice.

To Ed's comments, I have NOT had the orange flower blossom water balloons yet

- maybe next trip to Spain!

Sorry that you had a bad experience right off. Trust me, this can be a good thing.

Hunt

Hi Nils,

Well, here in the hinterlands of North Carolina the concept of a "wine menu" has not yet emerged. The closest is one restaurant that has a huge "by the glass" offering.

The closest thing we have here from time to time is where a restaurant might put on a "wine dinner" where, generally they are pushing the wines of a given distributor as opposed to trulying working to create the right match between wine and food.

I guess it boils down to having some knowledge of the establishment to know if they are truly working on creative wine/food matching or, they are simply doing a gimic to push a distributor's wines or simply trying something new for the heck of it.

Art Stratemeyer ============================

Cellar! Wine Software

restaurant

I thought that The Fearrington House in Chapel Hill had a wine menu.

First, Art, a question: NC used to have some interesting liquor laws (I'm going back many years here, so things most likely have changed). How do the state's laws regarding restaurants and wine read? Is there one state distributor, with big list for all restaurants to choose from?

As for the "featured wine," for me a 4 color glossy "table-talker" is usually a bad sign.

Hunt