At Bibliotheque, a wine bar and bookstore in New York City, reading the wine list feels like a literary experience in itself. While perfectly matched to the setting, the experience is nonetheless surprising. The list’s table of contents might steer you toward a chapter on Short Stories (wines by the glass) or the Young Adult section (bottles under $80). It’s playful and even silly at times, but somehow it still makes sense. In short, it offers a completely new way of thinking about wine and how they can be categorized and sold.
Wine lists, like food menus, have always evolved with the way people dine, but the pace of change has accelerated in recent years. The pandemic completely upended on-premise dining, and economic pressures and shifting consumer preferences continued to reshape how restaurants buy, price, organize, and sell wine. As a result, wine lists look much different today than they did 10 years ago.
“My god, they have changed so much,” says Chase Sinzer, the owner of Stars, Claud, and Penny in New York City. “Lists are less dogmatic, less bound by ‘the same,’ and less controlled by what everyone’s buying.” And while many of these changes have emerged from difficult circumstances, the ways beverage professionals are reimagining and reengineering their programs to meet today’s demands offer an exciting glimpse at where wine lists are heading.
This direction of change, however, is far from universal. While many wine-focused restaurants are meeting today’s challenges with innovative solutions, others have responded by cutting costs, trimming back dedicated beverage staff, and relying more on simple, self-service lists with familiar classics. Where innovation succeeds, there’s often a common trait: a business model that was built around a love of wine and a mission to make it more accessible. When great wine is at the heart of a business, challenging times can inspire new ways to keep it approachable – and preserve the joy of discovering and sharing it.
After speaking with several wine-focused beverage directors across the U.S., it’s clear there’s an appetite for big ideas, experimentation, and lasting change around the definition of a great list. Over a series of articles, we’ll explore the many ways wine lists are evolving, from how they’re designed and organized to how they’re priced and sold. We’ll start with the list itself – and the changing ideas around what makes one great. So, what do the best wine lists look like today?
From encyclopedia to edit
When talking to wine professionals about the great wine lists of the past decade, one word comes up over and over: encyclopedic. “Previously, lists seemed focused more on encyclopedic vertical and horizontal references from benchmark producers in classic regions,” says Alec Cummings, the wine director at The Morris and Sirene in San Francisco and Oakland, California, respectively.
This approach persisted as we emerged from the pandemic. “As restaurants reopened – I’m thinking around mid-2021 – people were so starved for gathering and conviviality that they were spending money on wine like nobody’s business,” says Evan White, the beverage director at Bludorn in Houston. “You could throw anything and everything on a list and it would sell, especially expensive, blue-chip wines.”
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