The Food and Beverage industry grows 5% every year. No matter if you go to a fine dining or to your local farm to table restaurant around the corner, the majority of restaurants offer a selection of wines. The list can be longer or shorter depending on the restaurant.

If you look at the wine list of a fine dining restaurant, such as Asiate, you will find yourself immersed in a 60 pages wine list. Nonetheless, if you look for the wine list of Serafina, you will see a simple one page list.

Zagat, which is a guide for restaurant reviews, describes Asiate as an “Elegant, calm surroundings and spectacular views over Central Park make an incomparable backdrop for the exquisite New American cuisine at this special-occasion go-to atop the Mandarin Oriental”. The wine list of Asiate is neat and easy to read. You can notice that they segment their list in four categories:

• White wine (the majority of the wines come from Burgundy followed by the Loire Valle, Côtes du Jura, which is an appellation of the Jura region, Alsace, Corsica, the Rhône Valley & Bordeaux)
• Red wine (mostly from France and Italy)
• Sweet and Fortified wines

Another noticeable aspect of Asiate’s wine list is that some of the wines they offer do not have a vintage, and are marked as NV. In their list, there is a dessert wine vintage 1889 from Hungary. And, a high quality wine “Giacomo Borgogno, Riserva”, Barolo DOCG, which is a red Denomination of Controlled and Guaranteed Origin wine made in the region Piedmont in Italy.

A third observation that captures my attention is the use of the words “Champagne” and “Sparkling Wine”. Even though they both refer to the same type of wine, I know that wines listed under “Champagne” come from the Champagne region of France. Whoever, the wines listed as “Sparkling Wine” can come from anywhere.

In contrast to Asiate, Serafina is a quiet, family style pizza restaurant. With over 5 locations in New York City, Serafina offers a very simple wine list. The first thing you notice is the length of their wine list; one page. Another compelling observation is the use of “BTG” and “BTB”, referring to “By the glass”, and “By the bottle”. The third observation is the use of “Champagne” to refer to Prosecco, which is Italian sparkling wine, when they are not supposed to.

The similarities and differences between the two are evident. The wine lists are similar in the layout and segments. In addition to that, the two lists mention the prices of the wines. On the other hand, Asiate’s wine list mentions the vintage of the wines while Serafina’s does not. Besides that, Asiate offers wine from around the word, while Serafina only sells wines from Italy.

Looking at two totally different wine lists allowed me to see how much effort restaurants put into their businesses, specifically in wine. I noticed that wines from France and Italy are pretty popular among wine lists. I observed how words that might mean the same were used in an incorrect way. I analyzed an extensive and a short wine list, saw the vintages, crus, appellations, PDO’s, PGI’S, DOCG, DOC without being lost because #IStudyWine.

Direct links to the wine lists:

Asiate: https://photos.mandarinoriental.com/is/content/MandarinOriental/new-york-restaurant-asiate-wine-list?_ga=2.169036257.1523833812.1585000070-1899301768.1585000070&_ijcid=1585009384494|50.1871910342.1585000070724.3449b4d1

Serafina: https://media-cdn.getbento.com/accounts/430c847cc42df774cae8a25fd92f0517/media/menus_files/vgB3zszuSmeq3NQINGhK_tcaE1O1RLiTW9mIThpmg_MASTER_WINE_B_WAY_Jan_28_2018.pdf

Citations

About: Serafina in New York, NY. (n.d.). Retrieved March 23, 2020, from               https://www.serafinarestaurant.com/about/

Asiate. (n.d.). Retrieved March 23, 2020, from https://www.zagat.com/r/asiate-new-york

Asiate – Restaurants In Manhattan: Mandarin Oriental, New York. (2020, February 11). Retrieved March 23, 2020, from https://www.mandarinoriental.com/new-                         york/manhattan/finedining/restaurants/american-cuisine/asiate

Growing Futures. (n.d.). Retrieved March 23, 2020, from             https://www.plantandfood.co.nz/growingfutures/food