The last blog I posted outlined a strategy that this wine director/sommelier uses to taste and evaluate wine samples dropped off to me to taste and consider for wine list placement. Just this week I was at a walk-around trade tasting, hosted by one of this country’s best wine suppliers on the wholesale side of the business, Douglas Polaner Selections. I bumped into a fellow sommelier friend who read my blog on Vintrust.com and wanted to know how I get word out to wholesalers to request their best wine sample options that I’ll later taste.

We both agreed on one thing: so many samples get delivered to us, yet they often make no sense for any of our wine lists. I buy for five restaurants: Balthazar, Pastis, Pravda, Lucky Strike and Schiller’s. The varied samples I receive indicate that I should have given more clues to suppliers before they pulled a sample bottle from their stash.

I told my sommelier buddy that I’d forward to her an email I just shared with some of my key wholesalers so that she could adapt it for her own purposes before forwarding it to her contacts.

It might, I hope, serve as an example for others in our positions hoping to save hours of phone conversations and meetings. While I enjoy and recognize the importance of face time and phone conversations, most of us with busy day and night restaurant schedules need to find ways to reduce our hours so that we, say, get home to walk the dogs and water the plants. And a few hours of sleep are always nice.

Here’s that time-saving email, enclosed within double asterisks (**) that I emailed to some of my reliable wine suppliers, and shared with my friend:

** Sorry for the impersonal email, without an actual conversation, but wanted to save time. As you know by now, each Wednesday at Balthazar we change the wine list by up to a couple of dozen new wines, and every two weeks we change it at Pastis.

Two wine list openings for you to consider:

• At Balthazar we're looking for a Beaujolais from either the 2003 or 2004 vintages to pour by the carafe. Bottle cost should not exceed $7. We pour about 10 cases every few weeks.
• And at Pastis we're looking for 2002 or 2004 Macon at no more than $8/bottle. We pour about 10 cases every 10 days. For both the Beaujolais and the Macon we'd like to make sure you have enough supply for us to order in 10 case drops for at least two months.

In a month, I’m making an update to the Lucky Strike restaurant wine list which means we're changing several wines this go-round. If one of your wines is being replaced by another, it's not a reflection of the wine's quality and popularity, but our wanting to offer a new, fresh list since Lucky Strike has so many regular guests.

Here are the by-the-glass categories that are now open:

Pinot Noir from anywhere ($8 or lower bottle cost)
Merlot from anywhere ($8 or lower bottle cost)
Red Cotes-du-Rhone ($7 or lower bottle cost)
Chardonnay from anywhere ($7 or lower bottle cost)

Here is the only by-the-bottle open category:
Italian red recognizable category like Chianti, Barbera, etc. ($7 or
lower bottle cost)

For samples that you suggest by-the-glass, please keep in mind that Lucky Strike sells about a case a week for the chardonnay and merlot, and a bit less of slightly less popular categories like Chianti and Cotes-du-Rhone.

Can you please drop off unopened samples by no later than Thursday, March 24 between 11AM and 6PM, Monday-Friday, without giving me notice? Please drop them off at the bar and they'll get to my office.

PLEASE write bottle price and best case pricing on each sample that you submit. Also, please respond to this email with a list of the wines you're submitting along with pricing.

At least a few of us in the wine department will taste all the wines BLIND, in paper bags, by category. I'll send out an email within a couple of days of the tasting, to all of you, letting you know which wines were chosen. I won't be able to invest time—I sincerely apologize—giving specific feedback on each sample since there will be dozens, but rest assured each will be tasted within a week and heavily considered for its appropriate spot on the wine list. When I next see you in person, I can share more detailed feedback. **