Wine & Spirits - April 2020 - 55

HOW WE
CONDUCT
THE POLL

NOAH SINGERMAN
Leon's Fine Poultry
and Oyster Shop
CH ARLESTON , S C

LEON'S FINE POULTRY AND
OYSTER SHOP, CHARLESTON, SC

Chablis is a recognizable brand-
people see Chablis and think,
'I know that name.' Our staff
also understands the popularity
of Sancerre; our chardonnay is
almost always an unoaked style-
and Chablis then becomes a
natural progression.

BURGUNDY ON THE EDGE
As prices skyrocket for wines from the legendary
villages of the Côte d'Or, sommeliers offer more
off-the-beaten-path selections. This year, respondents called out Chablis and Beaujolais, on Burgundy's northern and southern edges. We asked
sommeliers to name their best new success, and of
the Burgundy wines mentioned, all the whites were
Chablis, and Beaujolais beat out red Burgundies.

CHRIS RAFTERY
Gramercy
Tavern
N YC

Not that Chablis is an affordable
region, but it has a lower barrier
to entry if people want to drink
white Burgundy. We are getting
a lot of asks for unoaked chardonnay. People in the past, when
they asked for chardonnay, it
was almost a code word for rich,
oaked and buttery. We still do
that follow-up question: Would
you like something fuller and
richer or lean and mineral-driven?
Now people are responding with
"lean and mineral-driven." Which
is great. It's what sommeliers have
hoped for, for twenty years.

RYAN JASIELUM
Liholiho Yacht Club
S AN FRANCIS C O, C A

The versatility of cru Beaujolais works well
with our food. Light reds tend to be the jam
here. The Lapierre has a little of that funky
freshness that I love in cru Beaujolais. It fits
well with dishes like the beef-tongue steamed
buns or our house-made Spam. One of the
crazier tasks in my buying duties is to seek
out the very best "Spam wines." Never in my
wildest dreams would I have thought that I'd
be pairing Spam with Burgundy, but it's actually not a bad pairing.

CULLEN
LEONARD
Staplehouse
ATL ANTA , GA

If guests are looking for a red, our three sommeliers will always go straight to Beaujolais-not only for the quality, but also for the
price. The versatility of pairing that with our
food makes it the best option, especially on
the red side.
WINE & SPIRITS

For our Annual
Restaurant Poll, we
survey America's
favorite restaurants,
inviting 2,748 of
them to participate
in the digital survey.
By our deadline, 213
restaurateurs had
completed the poll,
providing a list of
their ten top-selling
wines in the last
quarter of 2019; lists
of their top-selling bythe-glass selections;
and answers to our
questions about how
their guests order
and enjoy wine.
A quick scan of
the participants (see
Restaurant Directory, p. 71) will give
a good perspective
on the results. You'll
recognize a range
of extraordinary
restaurants among
our respondents,
places like Acquerello
in San Francisco
and 71Above in Los
Angeles, The Inn at
Little Washington
in Washington, VA,
Helen Greek in Houston, TX, Spiaggia in
Chicago and Per Se in
NYC. All are experts
when it comes to
the question of what
wines people are
looking for today.
After analyzing our
survey data, we interview a number of
participants for their
perspectives on the
trends we find. Since
the Poll tracks the
top end of the market
for fine wine-both
in terms of who we
survey, and the wines
they list-the results
do not represent
actual sales figures.
Instead, the significance of the Poll lies
in the fact that the
overall wine market
continues to take its
cues from the top.
APRIL 2020

Wine & Spirits - April 2020

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