Wine & Spirits - April 2020 - 57

Rank

BY THE
GLASS
Between Coravins, cans and kegs, "wine
by the glass" doesn't mean what it used
to. Restaurants have expanded their offerings, even as many guests this year are
looking for the cabernets, chardonnays
and sauvignon blancs that dominate the
list of the Most Popular By-the-Glass
pours. Where have all the geeky wines
gone? Over the last few years, somms
around the country have reported that
people are willing to follow them to more
esoteric places for a glass. Increasingly,
those wines have gone to pairings.
Even as prices on Burgundy, Bordeaux and Napa cabernet continue to
rise, guests are looking for value in those
familiar places. Nickel & Nickel topped
the list with an average price of $16 for
its Napa Valley cabernet sauvignon.
Still, guests appear willing to shell out
for sparkling. Two Champagnes on our
Most Popular By-the-Glass list came in
ahead of the only other sparkler to make
the cut, the Bisol Prosecco. Mark Guillaudeu of Oakland's Commis thinks that
showcasing multiple options helps push
Champagne as a category. "It's part of
our opening spiel [before the tasting
menu]. As soon as you put that word in
somebody's mind, they're like, 'Sure,
Champagne sounds great.' Then we built
the follow-up question, 'Well, actually we
have three Champagnes by the glass.'"
Name recognition can be a powerful
draw, too. It could be the reason Samantha Germani is moving half-bottles of La
Rioja Alta at Lacroix in the Rittenhouse
Hotel in Philadelphia. "I was shocked
to see the half-bottle sales were almost
always Rioja." On the whiter side of
things, Sancerre and sauvignon blanc
are flying off the shelf at Nashville's Folk,
says Aria Dorsey: "It's always going to
be an easy go-to; guests will call for it."
A strong by-the-glass program can
draw people in, especially in parts of the
country where there's a drive home after
dinner-as at Yono's in Albany, NY, where
Dominick Purnomo says that if people
are driving, "You want only two glasses of
wine, but you want something good."

Brand

Bottling

1

Nickel & Nickel

Rutherford Quarry Vineyard Cabernet Sauvignon

$16

2

Billecart-Salmon

Champagne Extra Brut

$25

3

Luis Seabra

Douro Xisto Ilimitado Branco

$14

4

Decoy

Napa Valley Merlot

$18

5

Domaine Leon Barral

Faugères

$23

6

Peay

Sonoma Coast Pinot Noir

$24

7

Marc Hébrart

Champagne Rosé Brut

$32

8

RouteStock

Napa Valley Route 29 Cabernet Sauvignon

$16

9

Jean Collet

Chablis

$20

Justin

Paso Robles Cabernet Sauvignon

$16

Lucien Crochet

Sancerre

$41

12

Whitehaven

Marlborough Sauvignon Blanc

$25

13

La Rioja Alta

Rioja Viña Alberdi
Rioja Gran Reserva 904

$24
$42

14

Bisol

Prosecco Jeio

$19

Hedges Cellars

Washington CMS Sauvignon Blanc

$26

Henri Bourgeois

Sancerre Les Baronnes Rouge

$15

Failla

Sonoma Coast Chardonnay

$27

Maison Joseph Drouhin

Mâcon-Villages

$13

17

19

Avg. Price

Rodney Strong Vineyards Chalk Hill Estate Chardonnay

$13

Sandhi

$17

Santa Barbara County Chardonnay

YONO'S,
ALBANY, NY
WINE & SPIRITS

APRIL 2020

57
Wine & Spirits - April 2020

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