The Wall Street Journal wine writer Lettie Teague has written an interesting article about the changing customs of ordering wine in restaurants in the US. Here are three of the changes.
A man is no longer considered the automatic recipient of a wine list and women are being presented the list more often. “One reason women may be getting the wine list more often may be that there are more female sommeliers working the floor (in New York),” Teague writes.
“Another ‘rule’ gone by the wayside is that a serious wine list should look—and feel—like a library book. Today, a wine list may be no more than a few sheets of paper or even the back of a menu. It could even be a tablet computer.”
Teague’s third custom to go out the window is that “sommeliers are the best source of advice. With wine lists that allow diners to access the Internet, sommeliers may not be diners’ first source of information. Electronically emancipated diners can now look up descriptions, get the latest wine scores—and even find out how much that Cabernet really costs at retail.”