Not Having a Written Wine List Is Trendy—and a Bad Idea

Asking to see the wine list at a bar or restaurant is part of the gig for any group’s “wine person.” For pros and the civilian wine cognoscenti, that’s the moment to earn our keep with the crew. But I’d wager that few responses are more frustrating than when the staff comes back with, “Tell me what you like and the style of wine you’re looking for.”

The subtext? “We don’t have a written wine list.” In the current era of wine service fashion, it’s become a frequent refrain.

To be fair, for casual wine drinkers looking for some guided exploration, the menu-less trend has its advantages. Tell ‘em what styles you like, have recommended tastes poured, and pick your poison. Fun and interactive, right? Not always.

An important caveat: Any operation maintaining a small enough selection—say under 15 options, give or take—gets a pass on any criticism. That’s manageable. Also with immunity are wine shops with large inventories that offer tastings. They’re a different beast.

For the rest, though, I believe offering a complete written list should be de rigueur. But before the excoriation commences, let me unpack the wine list-free concept—and why it has the potential to drive wine folk up the wall.

The Case For an Unwritten Wine List

Before I break down why they’re a pain, let’s look at why an operation might opt for an unwritten list in the first place.

To be clear, there are plenty of wine-list-free locales that offer exceptional quality. They include a number of hotspots around the world—like Sauced in Brooklyn and Nashville, Lisbon’s Insaciável, and the lauded Les Enfants du Marché in Paris—all of which boast vetted wine programs highlighting interesting and praiseworthy producers.

From a behind-the-scenes perspective, the unwritten system enables operations to assert more interactive control over their inventories.

“It allows them to push specific products and guide customers towards a curated selection,” says Erling Wu-Bower, partner at Underscore Hospitality and chef-owner of Maxwells Trading in Chicago. “What I like about the menu-less system is that you engage with the guest directly from the start.”

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Another advantage for smaller wine programs with diverse inventories is flexibility. Many of these operations simply don’t have the capital to sit on cases upon cases of wine. Perhaps they’ve opted to stock up on “split” cases—literally half the number of bottles in a regular case—a common practice amongst these bars and restaurants.

“[They] might have to roll with a constantly changing and fluid selection,” says Michael Goss, beverage director for The Absinthe Group in San Francisco. “It might be unsightly or inconvenient to have ten items marked off on a list before the next print of the menu.”

The Shortcomings of Verbal Communication

When a wine list isn’t written, the onus is entirely on the wait staff to communicate with the consumer.

But describing flavors and aromas verbally can be a complicated dance, list or not. The way individuals talk about wine can differ significantly, making it difficult to communicate what a wine tastes like. Nicole Muscari, wine educator and owner of communications outfit Grape Chic, thinks it can be an even trickier task without the signposts and guardrails a written list provides.

“So much can get lost here,” she says. “Consumers often confuse fruitiness with sweetness or tannins with dryness, and not everyone shares the same flavor references.” Even for wine lovers confident in their knowledge, ordering based only on verbal descriptions provided by the server can feel like flying blind.

“For instance, if I see a Cornas from the northern Rhône on the list, I have a sense of what I’m getting into,” she says. “Without that context, I lose the ability to guide my own exploration, and it becomes more about chance than choice—and sometimes chance is expensive.”

While inventory control can create a more manageable situation for the venue, the other side of the coin is potentially more wine gatekeeping. (Not that written lists can’t also result in gatekeeping—snobbery can strike anywhere.) A list-free approach also allows a bar or restaurant to literally gatekeep what they have in inventory, like exclusively pushing certain bottles.

“There’s a subtle ‘You’ll get what I want you to get’ vibe that risks flipping the dynamic,” Muscari says. “Suddenly the staff are positioned as the all-knowing authority, and the guest feels like they’re in the dark. Instead of empowering people to make their own choices, it can unintentionally create a sense of imbalance.”

Wine programs without written lists also put a greater burden on team members to really know their stuff. Which is great, if they actually do. If they don’t, customers can be led astray by insufficiently wine-educated staff.

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“I don’t believe most operators achieve that elite level of staffing and training,” Wu-Bower says. While many list-free programs are certainly executed by meticulously trained floor teams, it’s undoubtedly less frequent than one would hope. “The unfortunate reality is that many who work in these environments are simply faking it.”

Leaving Money on the Table

For drink-seekers with more developed wine chops, the unwritten wine list trend has become a growing burden.

Unable to quickly and quietly browse by section, one must adhere to this new regime of ask, wait, hope, taste, repeat—or annoyingly hover over other patrons to painstakingly squint at bottles along the wall. And if a particularly appealing wine is available, the guest may not even be made aware.

Without at least a written list available upon request, wine bars and restaurants may be losing out on sales and what could be their best customers. In an economic climate of increasingly nervous consumers cutting back on restaurant dining, that’s a self-inflicted wound that operators can ill afford. It’s certainly a frustrating deterrent for wine-savvy clients who might not want to bother with the hassle.

“I would always prefer to have a written list in addition to talking points,” Goss says, advocating for a hospitality-focused, all-of-the-above approach. Though it may require more time and effort, the bar and restaurant industry would be wise to take note.