Wining and Dining

Tips on Tasting

The golden rule of wine selection and tasting: Trust your palate. But where to start? How do you build a wine palate and choose a bottle at a restaurant or wine shop? UCLA Magazine spoke with expert wine instructors in UCLA Extension's Vintage program for answers. Wine connoisseur and retail expert James Yobski teaches in the Sequential Program in Vintage, a course series for those with a serious interest in wine. Scott Torrence, a vice president with Christie's Wine Department, teaches UCLA Extension's Introduction to Wine course.

Both agree it's best to build a little wine knowledge before you find yourself sitting down in that chic restaurant, staring at the wine list and wondering which bottle will pair well with your risotto and your companion's lobster. But there are a few simple rules you can follow. Think of wine and food as being in a power relationship, suggests Torrence: Bold food flavors should be matched with a bold wine. Yobski puts it another way. Pairing food and wine, he says, is a question of matching their textures and weights. So even if you don't know what wine matches filet mignon, you can speak the wine steward's language and ask for a weighty wine that won't be overpowered by the beef.

A good restaurant wine buyer will tailor the restaurant's wines to the chef's food, Torrence says, and a good wine steward will know the wine list. At a restaurant, Yobski notes, "you're paying two or three times retail for that bottle of wine, so you should be getting what you're paying for."

Unfortunately, too many restaurants rely on large wine distributors to provide both their wines and their wine lists, Yobski says, which means the wines won't necessarily match the chef's food. Look for vintage years in the wine list, he suggests. If the list doesn't include vintage years for the bottles, it may mean the restaurant or wine distributor doesn't want to bother updating the list when one year is no longer available or another is added to the restaurant's wine cellar — indicating that wine service is not a high priority.

Don't be afraid to specify a price range, Torrence says. "A lot of times wine stewards can be most creative around $40, because there are so many wines available in that range." He compares wine to another common passion: shoes. Each pair of shoes you own, he explains, has a use: some are casual, some are formal, some are inexpensive and some are expensive. And like shoes, different wines have different uses and prices. So decide what kind of evening you're having — from simple to extravagant, from sneakers to Pradas — and let that guide you in choosing a price range for your wine.

"There's so much good wine available for $10 to $20," Yobski agrees. As a rule of thumb, the more expensive the wine, the better it will be — but the difference is incremental. "Is that $100 bottle of wine really 10 times better than a $10 bottle of wine?" Yobski asks. "Probably not."

Of course, he says, there may be times when you're splurging on an expensive bottle of wine, in which case the focus should be on the wine, not the food. The same, he adds, is true for food: If the highlight of the evening is truffles or caviar, focus on that, not the wine.

Hopefully, though, you won't find yourself sitting in a restaurant, your eyes glazing over as you try to decipher the wine list. You'll have done some homework beforehand, tasting wine and discovering what you like — probably some of the more enjoyable homework you'll ever do.

There are several ways to go about this. Try tasting flights — samples of three or four paired wines — at a wine bar or accommodating wine shop, or share a few bottles, and your impressions of each, with friends. Either way, you'll be able to focus on the wine and compare similar bottles — the best way to taste wine, says Yobski.

How to choose the bottles? Go to a good wine shop and ask, he says. The trick, of course, is finding a good shop. Torrence estimates there are four or five in Los Angeles. As you taste more wines and develop your palate, you and your wine merchant both will become better able to choose wines that fit your taste. You might also look for the wine importer's information on the bottles you like. It'll be there — it's required by law — and you may find that one wine importer's palate matches your own.

But don't be afraid to be adventurous, cautions Torrence. There's a world of wine out there. While America's wine palate has developed over the past decades, there are still undiscovered wines. Dry rosé is Yobski's pick; it pairs well with Mediterranean food and Los Angeles' climate. Torrence mentions Syrah, which, he says, offers the weight of a merlot, but with more depth.

One last tip. When in doubt, Torrence says, "order a pinot noir."

— John Ferrari

This Spring Quarter, UCLA Extension is offering An Introduction to Wine, led by Scott Torrence, and Vintage III, led by James Yobski. Summer Quarter courses include An Introduction to Wine and The Business of Wine Management; Fall Quarter's offerings include The Art of Pairing Wine with Food, An Introduction to Wine and Vintage I. For more information on UCLA Extension wine courses, visit www.uclaextension.edu, email ljames@uclaextension.edu or call (310) 206-5075.

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