Wine Education

A good wine list is an argument, not an inventory. Read from the structure down: the regions a restaurant chooses to over-represent tell you what it cares about long before you reach a single price.

Australia rewards the curious. Look past the famous Barossa Shiraz to the cool-climate Chardonnay of the Adelaide Hills, the Grenache reworking of McLaren Vale, and the tense, ageworthy Riesling of the Clare and Eden Valleys — the by-the-glass section is usually where a sommelier hides their most personal picks.

Value hides in the middle of the list, not the bottom. The cheapest bottle is often a defensive choice; two or three lines up is where a thoughtful buyer places the wine they actually want you to drink. When in doubt, ask the floor — a strong program is built to be interrogated, and the answer is half the pleasure.