Sommelier Mark Oldman knows your eye goes immediately to the cheapest wine on the list.
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A sommelier explains why you should buy the cheapest bottle on the wine list
In "How to Drink Like a Billionaire," sommelier Mark Oldman explains why the cheapest wine on a list can have excellent value.
Sommeliers are on to your tricks, says Mark Oldman, pictured.
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And he knows that many of us then move our glance over an inch, to select the second or third-lowest bottle so as not to seem, well ... cheap.
Another thing he knows? You're better off sticking with the cheapest.
In his book "How to Drink Like a Billionaire," Oldman writes that wine directors, restaurants, and sommeliers are on to your craftiness, and they've parried your move long before you arrived.
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"Knowing that it will sell swiftly," writes Oldman of the wine director, "he may have slotted an overstocked bottle into the position on the list. Even worse, he may have marked up this wine more than any other, making it potentially the worst value on the list."
Oldman continues:
"You are better served to order the cheapest wine, which diners often neglect out of fear or embarrassment and thus is often a better value. Just make sure you do so at a restaurant that cares about its wine, where even modestly prices wines are of admirable quality."
You know you're at such an establishment, he explains, by the presence of knowledgeable servers, interesting wines offered by the glass.
That said, however, he writes that although the presence of interesting by-the-glass offerings is reassuring, it's rarely cheaper to choose one.
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