6 wine menu red flags and how to avoid them

Let’s establish one thing up-front: It’s hard to create a good restaurant wine list. Sommeliers and beverage directors have to navigate subjective tastes, razor-thin profit margins and the complexities of the three-tier system of alcohol distribution in the United States.

Which is all the more reason to appreciate how a thoughtful wine list can improve your entire restaurant experience. When there’s something great in your glass, the food tastes better, the lighting seems more flattering, and you might even learn of a new-to-you wine region, style or producer you wouldn’t have encountered on your own.

Whether you’re paging through a leather-bound tome in a white-tablecloth restaurant or squinting at a chalkboard in a buzzy wine bar, it’s helpful to know what to look for — and the red flags to avoid. Here are six tips to navigate a wine list with confidence.

You see only big-name regions

Bottles from multinational name brands or marquee regions such as Napa are understandably popular, but a well-rounded wine program provides options beyond the usual suspects. “When it’s all just big-box names, I know it was the easiest thing to do, which is to order from a really large distributor,” says Annie Shi, owner of Lei, a wine bar, and co-owner of Jupiter and King restaurants in New York City. “There probably isn’t someone behind it who cares a lot about the wine program.”

On the flip side, lesser-sung regions or producers tend to offer more value and demonstrate the restaurant’s commitment to wine that appeals to many different palates.

“If there’s a region like Liguria on a wine list, that’s a good sign,” says Shi. “It’s a smaller region with great wines, and if someone doesn’t particularly care about their wine list, they’re probably not pulling in wines from Liguria.”

I feel similarly about bottles from Portugal and Croatia, and dry Hungarian and Spanish white wines almost always punch above their weight at restaurants.

There’s no wine from the country of the cuisine

If you go to a casual spot that specializes in gently priced Greek seafood, and the wine list is almost entirely devoted to splurgeworthy Left Bank Bordeaux, you’re justified in raising an eyebrow. Not only does such a limited selection make it harder to find a wine to pair with your meal, but it also makes the whole experience feel disjointed.

“It makes me wonder if the wine is independent of the food,” says Chris Ray, wine director of The Popal Group, including Lutèce and Maison Bar à Vins. “It speaks more to making money or satisfying a small group of clientele than exploring the contours of Greek or French wine.” Of course, a Greek restaurant doesn’t need to exclusively serve wines from that country, but you want the wine and food menus to feel complementary and cohesive.

The wine list is way too long

When a restaurant has an encyclopedic list with hundreds of bottles to choose from, it certainly seems impressive but isn’t a surefire sign of a great wine program. Unless the restaurant team is devoted to maintaining an expansive cellar, some of those bottles might be past their prime or no longer work with the menu. A tightly edited list with a range of wines that are all bangers gives me confidence there’s someone driving the ship, and investing time and expertise in their guests’ experiences.

There’s a lack of price-point variety

A lot of people believe the second least-expensive glass or bottle is the best value proposition, or a safe way to drink something tasty without breaking the bank or seeming cheap. In reality, restaurant professionals who care about their wine programs stand behind every bottle they sell, including — and especially — the lowest-priced options.

“When I’m making lists, and I’m trying to find the least- or second-least-expensive, let’s say, pinot noir, I know it’s an important area,” says Ray. “It’s where I’m going to be having most of my conversations on a regular basis.”

In most instances, you’ll notice a more marked difference in quality if you jump from $60 to $80 than if you were deciding between $180 or $200 bottles, Ray says. However, on a good list, a $60 and $64 bottle are typically comparable. It’s better for business.

The wines listed aren’t specific

When I’m handed a wine list, there’s no red flag more alarming than an absence of specificity. Describing a bottle as a Sta. Rita Hills pinot noir from 2022 is a lot more useful than saying it’s a California red. The latter could be rich and fruity, aged and oxidative, lean and fresh, or countless other combinations of flavor, texture, weight and age. Meanwhile, the details in the former tell me to expect a fairly young wine made from a lighter-bodied variety in a cooler corner of the state.

Even if you don’t know or care about the intricacies of varietal and climatic variations — kudos on being less insufferable than me, by the way — a vague wine list makes it harder for everyone to order something they’ll actually enjoy, because there’s so little to work with. If no one at the restaurant can tell you more about that California red, or about any of the offerings on the list, I’d be inclined to order a beer or something nonalcoholic.

The server or sommelier can’t talk about the wines

Every restaurant list is different. Rather than pulling out your phone to research each wine, or taking a wild swing and ordering whatever is in your price range, ask the server or sommelier for help. It’s what most wine professionals do, too.

“When I go to a restaurant and I’m handed a list, I’m having conversations,” says Ray, who jokes that he doesn’t “have a strong enough liver” to be intimately familiar with all the wines every establishment sells. “I’m apt to say, ‘I’m looking to spend X dollars, this is what I generally enjoy, and I’m open to trying new things.’”

Everyone working on the floor of a restaurant might not be intimately familiar with all the bottles sold on-site, but an establishment that invests in its wine program will make sure some people can talk you through them. Plus, there are practical benefits to speaking up, Shi says. “If you can trust someone to ask questions, you’re going to get better value for your money.”

Offline conversations are also how we connect with each other — about wine and everything else. “We talk so much these days about AI, about what jobs it will replace and what remains irreplaceable,” says Shi. “Being out in a bar or restaurant is one of those irreplaceable experiences, and one of the great joys of it is the human interaction while you’re there. It’s a huge part of why we go out to eat and drink.”