Wine & Spirits - April 2020 - 51

31 URANT
s t AL
ANNU

RESTA

HIGHS & LOWS
"As my costs rise for wine, I see it like a pool
filling with water: I keep having to go down
a level if I want to maintain a price point
on my list," Jonathan Waters told us. The
wine director of Berkeley's Chez Panisse is
one of many this year who spoke wistfully
of the wines they could no longer pour.
It's not just the rising cost of wine.
It's that diners across America
are demanding more affordable
options, so that even as costs rise,
diners' interest in paying more for
wine does not. "We used to pour
Chave St-Joseph," Waters says,
"but that's changed."
In fact, much has changed in the three
decades since we started tracking wine trends
in restaurants, not least how an entire generation became fascinated with wine and made
a once distinctly European commodity their
own. Styles of wine we've created in California have influenced even the most conservative precincts of France. Ironically, some of the
most conservative drinkers here in the States
are wine buyers and sommeliers, who love the
classics and live for great expressions of historic parcels of land-whether those parcels
are in California, France, Italy, Spain or, especially, places less frequented by most casual
drinkers.
In our 31st year of polling wine directors at
America's most popular restaurants, we found
a number of respondents shifting to higherpriced tasting menus, with set wine pairings
to match. Their wealthy clientele-or their
ILLUSTRATION BY TISHK BARZANJI

CONTENTS

57 Most Popular Wines by the Glass
58 The Restaurant Top 50
71 Directory of Participating
Restaurants
MOST POPULAR WINES
BY VARIETY & COUNTRY

60
62
63
64
65
66
67
68
69
70

Sparkling Wines, Alternate Whites
Chardonnay, Sauvignon Blanc
Pinot Noir
Cabernet Sauvignon
Syrah & Rhône Reds, Zinfandel
French Wines
Italian Wines
Spain, Argentina, New Zealand
Greece, Popular Bargains
After-Dinner Wines

Edited by Joshua Greene and Tara Q. Thomas,
with reporting by Patrick J. Comiskey, Rachel
DelRocco Terrazas, Stephanie Johnson,
Sydney Love and Corey Warren. Project
managed by Raylene Mallet.

customers who had saved up for a celebration-were ready to dive into dinner with all
the decisions made for them in advance. But,
respondents more reliant on middle-class diners were feeling the squeeze, working doubletime to find selections they could offer for $50
or $60 a bottle. In the past, when we reported
a jump in the number of wine directors saying
their wine sales had decreased as a percentage
of overall restaurant sales, it usually prefaced
a recession. But this year, other factors may be
at work.
As this issue went to press, Robert McMillan at Silicon Valley Bank released his annual
State of the Wine Industry report, and his findings mirrored the results of our Poll. "Restaurant sales for both spirits and wine turned
toward negative growth last year," he told us
in a phone interview. "The whole idea of sitting down to a formal French meal may have
appealed to my generation, but as we rotate
from the older Boomer generation to the Millennials, the Boomers still hold 75 percent of
the nation's net worth, and 50 percent of its
discretionary income. Restaurants are used to
big markups and the young consumer won't
pay it. Millennials may pre-game, drinking
at home, or maybe order a beer. Maybe they
won't drink at all-in Sober September or Dry
January."
The dining public is not only split between
Boomers and Millennials, it's also split between
the affluent young-Instagramming coveted
dishes and bottles in top-tier dining rooms-
and their thin-walleted contemporaries hunting for fun, affordable and delicious options.
That tension has generated some fascinating
results in our Restaurant Poll, as diners aspire
to drink the classics or slake their thirst with
something new.
WINE & SPIRITS

APRIL 2020

Wine & Spirits - April 2020

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Wine & Spirits - April 2020