Hey guys! I've been a server at Tex Mex and Mexican restaurants for a very long time. I'm starting at a new place soon that requires at least a passing knowledge of wine, which I can't claim to have. What are some solid resources or websites for learning the basics of wine?
Thanks Veeky Forums!
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Start drinking wine. Don't trust those sommelier people, wine is a subjective thing with taste.
Seems like a good place to start! Any recommendations?
Look up wine shops in your area and see if they hold public tastings. Many are free or require a small fee, but it is good to broaden your horizons a little. I personally find that tastings work better with at least one other person. That way you can actually bounce tasting notes back and forth while sipping a glass.
It is also useful to study the menu of where you plan on working. That way you can try to focus on not only what types of wine they are but the products you are directly dealing with. Speaking as someone who is trained on cocktails and spirits, learning about any type of booze from scratch can be pretty daunting until you get to understand the basics.
This video series might be useful for you, though it starts off relatively slow. Good luck!
youtube.com
Try a Rioja. Faustino has some awesome gran reservas that are relatively cheap for their age (2001 vintage for ~$30). I'm pretty new to wine, but so far that's the best I've had for the price. Good full body, oaky, and great for drinking with a meal or by themselves. French wines are really good too (Burgogne, Bordeaux, etc.) but they're a ton more expensive.
Go to a vineyard most have wine tastings and they will tell you about them. Also i have never been but am sure a wine tasting at a shop is the same idea.
You will quickly learn it is a bunch of bs. There are some wines that are better than others its pretty much subjective.
And as one of the head guys at a vineyard i went to said "if in doubt just say it has earthy tones"
I feel like this would be a good one to browse through for a beginner, lots of info graphs and easily digestible information. If not wine for dummies is always pretty good. When you start to get more advanced possibly venture into The Wine Bible by Karen Macneil.
t. sommelier.
Rioja albeit delicious, is not a good place to start. Its a little complex for a beginners palate. Somethings to try at first to get and understanding.
Try a Sancerre(Sauvignon Blanc) Vs say a New Zealand Sauvignon Blanc. Do this to understand the insane difference, wine making technique and terroir have on a wine. In Sancerre 100%, but in NZ most likely they will be 100 percent Sauvignon Blanc. When it also comes to trying new wines as someone coming into this, try to hit the Basics, California Cab/Merlot, California Pinot Noir, California Chardonnay, NZ Sauvigon Blanc, The reds and whites more in depth of the old world to have a better grasp of new/old world.
As this user suggested, try and find a place in which you can taste wine in a relaxed setting, If you need information fast, perhaps read up on say two wines per Region/varietal/new vs old world on this new list you are studying to have a few basic ideas of what is offered.
t.sommelier
I apologize for all the grammatical errors/sentence structure, I'm tired as shit. But you get the jist of what I'm saying I'm sure.
this infographic is fucking terrible and everyone who posts it is a fucking moron. you can't just randomly contrast appellations with varietals, it's like saying "car" is in the same class as "camry" and over there we have "red truck" which is in a totally different grouping than "chevy"
Your restaurant will fail. It is an almost guaranteed chance.
don't trust california varietal wines if you want to learn varietal character. their entire industry is based on treating varietal character as a fault and treating varietal name as a brand.
california wine drinkers think it's cool to like pinot noir even though studies show they prefer the taste of smuckers jam and vanilla extract. so the constellation group hires the best scientists to make a wine that fits the legal minimums to be called "pinot noir" (which is like 60%) and then uses a combination of blending, extracts, powders, and state of the art technology to make a "pinot noir" that basically tastes like apothic red.
>this infographic is fucking terrible
Agreed.
It's important to realize, the whole wine industry is a lie. Just like chefs perpetuate the lie that al dente pasta is good, they also push the bullshit that certain wines taste better with certain foods. People with more money than sense tend to fall for both lines of crap though, so memorize this chart, and may the tips of the foolish flood your pocketbook.
>more wine folly trash edutainment images
kys
reread the original post they're not starting a place they are starting to work at a place
Hey OP, I'm in a fairly similiar situation.
I had a co worker who is well versed in wine let me borrow a copy of Windows to the world, I'm flipping through it right now and learning a lot.
Also taste more wines.
Hi friend. Learning about wine if you have very little experience is something that takes some time! But if you try very hard with some of the resources like the ones in this thread you will pick it up relatively quickly. Make sure to taste the wines you sell at the restaurant. You should talk to the sommelier/bar manager about the wines to get an idea of them too. The most important thing to remember is that most of your customers won't know anything about it so you can lie to them. As long as you tell them they are going to like it, they will!
user that posted the infographic here, as someone who has baseline knowledge thanks for calling out the misinformation. No kidding.
Disregard my pic OP.
ermitage 67.
>sparkling wine with food
LOL
Red with heavy meat/ red sauces. Almost always thicker/ fuller than white. Red is also known to be dry often. White is good with seafood / light sauces, light and can be sweet. Plenty of dry whites as well though.
Just get the list of wines they have stocked and check it regularly for updates. Then just google each wine and read a little bit about it. Try the ones that are less expensive (which are probably what gets ordered most often) on your own time. There you go, you can at least speak about them on a basic level and go to the bartender or sommelier when you get stumped. Customers don't expect the waiter to be a complete expert