Anyone who’s been in a grocery store lately has noticed the cereal boxes and spaghetti sauce jars are getting smaller. But wine lists are shrinking, too. On Monday, the New York Times published this trend piece from veteran wine writer Eric Asimov: Restaurant Wine Lists Are Getting Much Shorter.
In the article, Asimov checks in with wine directors and proprietors at several celebrated restaurants with pared-down cellars. Their motivations and approaches vary considerably. Sometimes, it’s in the name of art or provocation: Take Smithereens, the new East Village seafood restaurant whose 62-bottle menu features 32 Rieslings and only one red wine. Other times, necessity is the driving force–when restaurants have streamlined their purchasing habits in response to post-pandemic budget pressures.
I’m a big believer in the single-page wine list (and the single-page menu, for that matter). I mostly agree with Asimov in his praise of restaurants that have whittled their wine lists down to the bare essentials.
But seeking out efficiency or highlighting a unique wine collection aren’t the only good reasons to carry a smaller selection of wines. There are many! I’ve been thinking about establishments I visit that struggle with large wine lists or excel with small ones. Here’s six types of restaurants and bars that can benefit from maintaining an itty-bitty wine list:
1. When it’s a local or regionally inspired menu.
I absolutely love it when the wine list closely follows a regional cuisine. In this era of beverage industry consolidation, it seems that a handful of global brands tend to be poured at every table in town. It’s a rare pleasure to have the opportunity to drink smaller-batch wines and regional styles alongside the foods they grew up with.
Some chefs take this concept beyond the addition of a token bottle or two, and construct the whole wine list around hyper-local wines: Lebanese wines at a Lebanese café, or High Plains reds with Texas beef. In such cases, the wine list will necessarily be smaller because there are fewer quality wines to choose from in smaller regions.
Of course, familiar names and regions do help sell wine, and their presence on menus is a practical necessity. There’s no shame in including a few national brands to appeal to less adventurous diners.
2. When the food is hard to pair.
Food and wine get along like soul mates…except when they don’t. Some foods and cuisines are notoriously hard to pair. Desserts, vegetarian food, and some Asian cuisines come to mind. If your restaurant menu is stacked with dishes that aren’t wine-friendly, it makes all kinds of sense to devise a smaller, more tailored wine list.
A soufflé restaurant or a pho joint probably doesn’t need to have as big a list as a restaurant with a more varied and expansive menu. A savvy chef will only list wine styles that play nice with his/her food, and leave out those that don’t.
3. When cocktails are the main attraction.
Some establishments are great at wine, some are great at cocktails. It’s not too often that you find a place that consistently excels at both.
It’s a lot to ask of your bartenders to shake, flambé, smoke, muddle, and garnish those Insta-worthy drinks, and also to juggle a complicated wine service. The average bar doesn’t even hold enough glassware to pull off both feats. It can be done, but something–safety or speed or accuracy or customer contact–is likely going to suffer.
In short, if you have an elaborate cocktail menu, then you can probably make do with a workaday wine list (and vice versa).
4. When the staff has limited wine knowledge.
If you’re not really a wine place, that’s fine. Keep it simple. Not every restaurant has the resources to maintain a huge cellar and train all their staff to be expert sommeliers.
There’s a local dinner theater I’ve been going to forever, and their wine list rocks. It’s actually a “wine notecard”: A 3×5-inch index card poking up from between the salt and pepper shakers.
The food menu is an unpretentious mix of sandwiches and nachos. Many of the servers are part-time actors who don’t have a lot of restaurant experience. And so, the bar gets by with a rotating roster of about six wines: A white, a rosé, two reds (sweet and dry), one cheap bubbly, and one flashy bottle for high rollers (often a brand-name Champagne). Everything is always in stock, and if you ask a question about one of the wines you get a ready answer. Perfection!
5. When your sales volume doesn’t support a large list.
That brings me to probably the most important point in this article. If you don’t sell a lot of wine, printing up an ambitious wine list is a trap.
It’s imperative that every bottle in your wine program is, number one, freshly opened and properly stored. And number two, actually available to purchase (at least most of the time).
No extra points for having a large number of stale and out-of-stock bottles on the menu. If this describes your restaurant, it’s a sure sign you need to pare down the list.
6. When your restaurant is popular with groups.
That plush leather-bound wine binder is ideal for leisurely dinners of 2-4 people. For larger groups and looser gatherings, its utility diminishes.
Is your restaurant near a theater or a college campus? Is it a “small plates” or “share-ables” type of place? Do you seat a lot of friend groups, business meetings, and casual wine drinkers?
If the answer is yes, then you don’t need an epic wine selection. Serving wine to large groups is hard and that 100-bottle list is a surefire way to cause debates, option paralysis, and service mix-ups. Forget about pleasing everyone. With an efficient wine list, you’ll please some people–and everyone else can make do with what’s available.
How Small Is Too Small?
Some beverage managers worry that not stocking every moderately popular type of wine will lead to lost sales. After all, many drinkers have strong varietal or regional preferences. What if Sally Sancerre or Pinot Pete walks in and can’t find what they’re looking for?
However, having a ponderous and unfocused list is not the answer. Overstuffed menus can slow down service, intimidate customers, and can actually lead to selling less wine overall–with more waste and shrinkage, too.
Instead, have confidence in your picks. With a knowledgeable bar staff and an appealing, well-priced list you can often entice diners into trying a wine they may not have known about.
One of the best ideas I’ve seen in restaurant wine service is actually a hybrid approach. The restaurant will go ahead and load up that wine room as space permits and print up that multi-page menu. But they also offer an abbreviated wine list with recommended selections. Typically, it’s a laminated half-page with 6 to 12 popular wines in long-term or seasonal rotation.
The short menu can double as the large-party, by-the-glass, or happy-hour menu. (Or as the “we’re in the weeds!” menu if there’s an unexpected surge in business.) A dozen wines or fewer is enough for most people to find something they like. If someone’s really into wine or has more time to browse for a special bottle, the complete list is available on request.
In the NYT article, wine bar Parcelle follows a similar philosophy with their wines by the bottle. Diners receive a list of about 30 bottles with a note indicating that more are available to those who are interested. Proprietor Grant Reynolds finds the succinct list to be “welcoming”: “People can get our point of view without taking time filtering through a significant wine list.”
Ultimately, the definition of a small wine list is hard to pin down–it could be 6 wines or 60, depending on the type of restaurant. (Unlike some of the New York restaurateurs quoted in Asimov’s reporting, I will never view a 200- or 300-bottle list as concise.) Some places focus on wines more than others, but every restaurant can meet a minimum standard of service. What’s important is keeping the wine list fresh and functional so your guests find choosing wine to be a pleasure and not a chore.
I read the NYT article with some wistfulness, because as a wine student I relish reading a large wine list. I love seeing a shelf full of bottles I’ve never tried before. I admire places that boast wines in every region, style, and color.
But I have equal respect for a thoughtfully selected, relevant, and well-executed small list. In wine, it’s quality over quantity–unless, of course, you can somehow manage both.
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