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My palate is just plain weird so I almost never take anyone’s - especially a sommelier’s - advice when ordering wine, but your palate is probably not accustomed to pairing dessert wine with almost anything, much less with a rare steak.

If you don’t work in the wine business though, you should consult a sommelier for your wine order. Yes, I’m sure you know that Barolos are great wines and that 2005 was the “Best year ever” in Bordeaux, but you have NOT tasted most - or even many - of the wines on the wine list on any restaurant. This means that you absolutely should talk to someone who has tasted most of the wines on the wine list; this person is the sommelier.

Sommeliers come with an inherent problem though… they want to give you the perfect wine for your meal, and sometimes they forget that perfection comes with a very high price.

You want to have a fabulous meal, but perhaps not a perfect meal accompanied by a perfect $10,000 bottle of wine. The question is how do you stay in the price range where you feel comfortable while accepting the sommelier’s assistance and looking as cool as a cucumber grown in a Sean Connery era James Bond film?

The answer is in a simple phrase. While speaking to the sommelier, glance over the wine list, point to a price on the wine list where you feel comfortable, and tell him or her in a confident and sexy voice that, “I’d prefer to stay in this region if at all possible.”

You look ultra-classy for “knowing about wine regions,” and the sommelier feels appreciated since you’ve given them license to choose whatever bottle that works in your price range. Wine lovers appreciate a sense of adventure much more than they appreciate a price tag.

Telling a sommelier that you “were thinking about a Bordeaux/Burgundy/Napa/etc.” will only make it look like you frantically googled “wine+italian food” on your blackberry before you came no matter how much you were willing to spend on your bottle.

Wine Pairings, Wine Questions Answered |