What to order @ Biz Meetings?

I was recently promoted, so my new job description involves wining and dining certain clients on occassion. I’m not in a role where I am eating at Mastros, Mortons, or ($$$$) Steakhouses, but on any given week, I am taking clients out to lunch or dinner.

What is your go-to bottle of Red or White when you eat at steakhouses or seafood houses?

Any suggestions within the $50-$100 bottle range, so I can use as a conversation starter?

Drink whatever your client likes.

What if the client is polite and puts the ordering decision up to me? Then what?

“I like (x wine) with (x corporate dish). What about you guys?”

I assume you have developed some preferences. Express them. Lead the group - most of them will appreciate you taking the bat out of their hands. If you have a show-off in your group, back off and let him/her roll!

Mike P.- The honest answers you’ll get from most of us here is find a local wine shop or two and frequent them often, go to open tastings and figure out what it is you like about wine… You may find you are a craft beer guy or spirits guy instead of a wine guy, then tailor your lunch or dinner around a craft bar and know a bit about the subject.

But, since you asked…
When someone hands the wine menu to me, I figure out who I’m with, what they drink, ask a question to the group about what they feel like and go from there. The only way you can do that is if you know something about the subject so grab the menu from their website and study up. If you’re going to a niche restaurant they are going to have completely different wines given where you live, unless you go to a Morton’s or Ruth Chris (which are corporate and have like wine lists in each state), so it’s hard for me to say that Syncline from Washington is great in that price point when it’s not available in your area.

What’s your comfort level for ordering wine off a menu now?

keep it easy. Sancerre for white and new world (coolest climate as can be found) pinot noir for red

wont break anyones bank and won’t be too “challenging” for a client that might not be that into wine

Three most popular wines.
White
1 Chardonnay
2 Sauvignon Blanc
3 Pinot Grigio/Gris

Red
1 Cabernet Sauvignon
2 Merlot
3 Pinot Noir

So if you want to stay in the middle, go with one of these. I would try to stay around $65-75. Two good questions are, old world VS new world and what are you going to eat? Red wine with meat and white with seafood. Cab/merlot with steak is a classic match. Pinot Noir can work with both, depending on the style of the Pinot and the dish. Depending on the restaurant the server or someone might be able to help you.

I’d go right for the 2012 Caymus.

In all seriousness though, it wouldn’t hurt to obtain a copy of the list first to make some choices. That gives you the opportunity to check CT if needed and have an idea of what’s available for your customers’ preferences.

Make sure to look at the prices and not hear $37.50 as the price.

Since “it depends” is not helpful advice . . . when people ask me what to order off a list that I can’t look at, I usually tell them to look for a Cote du Rhone as a red and third white from the bottom of the price list for white. I don’t normally follow that rule myself but I often check it out when I window shop at wine lists while the waiter opens the bottle I brought, and the rule generates usually generates acceptable results. You can also consider bringing a bottle if the restaurant allows it. Your “guests” will appreciate that you made the effort to bring something good and you should be able to get something in the $40-$60 range that will suit everyone wel and stay within your price range even after corkage.

Ladera Cab, which many of these “corporate” steakhouses carry, is always a nice new intro at a very fair price.

Never had a ‘biz meeting’, so take my answer with a grain of salt, and think of it as salt, as in the meaning of salt. What is salt’s function? To season things, correct! So think of how the wine will fit in to what you are talking about. Need to ‘spice things up’ and get the ball rolling? Then try something a bit out of both of your comfort zones. Need to simmer things down because of the ‘serious nature’ of discussions? Go with something boring and traditional so no feathers are ruffled.

I’ve actually had good luck with really offbeat bottles, especially when dining on someone else’s dime. Respectful (i.e., I’m not just burning your expense account) and a good conversation starter. A local steak joint has Turley cinsault on the list and it is a consistent winner over lunch.

I understand where the OP is coming from. I am a wine geek and from my various Instagram posts of bottles and winery trips my clients know it. Most of them are wine likers but don’t know a whole lot about wine. Moreover, we do typically go to mid tier lunch restaurants, and they almost always defer the wine choice to me.
Typically these restaurants do not have amazing wine lists, so it just is what it is. I’ll grab the most appropriate wine varital for the cuisine or location (ie maybe a cab at a steak place, or sav blanc if we’re at a ca cuisine spot outdoor on patio in summer.) Typically you are stuck with the one or two choices they have of that variatal. If the list is longer, I try and pick something from here in CA (I live in Southern California) and from a producer I’ve personally visited and like, and something that has some distribution. This way I can talk about how the winery grounds look, or talk about a fun tour, or meeting with the wine maker, etc. I think often times the client is looking for a conversation starter more than the particular wine choice. This way if they like the wine, they can hunt and find the wine for sale or also visit if they go on vacation to that area (quite common for people here head north to the central coast, paso, napa, or sonoma to vacation in “wine country” even if they aren’t big wine geeks like me.) In this arena and at your budget, I’d look for mid tier wines, with decent but not crazy distribution. I’d go with a Rhone variatal from Paso Robles (herman story pops up on lists and his bottles are unique) a Pinot or chard from the Santa Ynez area (Melville is widely distributed) a Cab from napa (lots to choose from here, but the best juice is over that budget.) At the $50 level at a restraunt your looking at very mass market stuff. Not a whole lot to talk about from my Kendall Jackson tasting, haha. At the $75-$100 range you may find something from a nice producer, but it’s hit or miss. I do not have a go too, but do lean towards fruit forward and/or lower alcohol if possible. The fruit tends to be better accepted for wine newbies and at lunch I don’t want to get tanked.
That being said, I will still re state me first comment. Order what your client likes. Part of developing a relationship with your clients is figuring out their likes and dislikes. If they are a big French Bordeaux wine drinker, don’t order a sweet white zin, even if it’s your preference. Some of the best choices QPR wise on wine lists are from South America, but not usually easy to find on store shelves, and most clients wont know a whole lot about Malbec or torontes. Maybe that’s a conversation starter, but did prob stick to the tried and true.

Call ahead to wherever you have the reservations, explain that you are the host, and then review your wine budget. The staff will help think about it in advance and will make you look good when they call you Mister P. and discuss a few wine options that you and your client may be interested in.

Having narrowed down the list, you could then say, “Sounds great, I will defer to my guest,” (knowing he/she can’t now break the bank) or, if your guest defers to you, you have some safe $$$ choices with some personalized thought behind them.

Congrats on the promotion!

Depending on the focus of a list, there may be a fairly limited selection of red wines displaying “unique character” in that price range, unless the restaurant has a very low markup. In most business-focused eateries you will be choosing from a $16 - $35 retail value in that $50 - $100 range (2 - 3x markup). Best to do some recon work to check on what the focus is and then compare the list with what you know, or can readily research.

Terry Lewis wrote: "keep it easy. Sancerre for white and new world (coolest climate as can be found) pinot noir for red

wont break anyones bank and won’t be too “challenging” for a client that might not be that into wine".

Sorry Terry, I disagree completely.

Assuming the client is an unknown, they might prefer:
beer
White Zinfandel
the blandest Merlot
Tropical, buttery, oaky Chardonnay

High acid wines like you suggest appeal to wine geeks, this board. They emphatically do not appeal to the average consumer who may not like wine very much, or at all.


to Mike P:

Yes, call the restaurant and discuss your budget and anything you might know about your customers.

If you know nothing about your customers, then your safest choices are
California Chardonnay for white
Most Italian Pinot Grigio is boring and dilute, absolutely perfect for a business meal.
If you can ask if they don’t mind off-dry, a Riesling, could be New World or German
If you can ask if they like really dry white, a Sauvignon Blanc. Go New World, do not go for Sancerre.

For red wine, California Cabernet or Merlot. Argentine Malbec works just as well.
If you can ask if they like Pinot Noir, go for a mainstream wine from Russian River or Carneros. Avoid the coolest climate wines.

I make my living selling mostly Old World wines, primarily France, also Spain. Argentina is ~15% of my business. It is not in my economic interest to recommend soft, fruit New World wines that may have some residual sugar and will probably be low in acidity, but that’s where you need to go.

Dan Kravitz

Some version of this. Most times the other people at the table will be glad to defer to you and move on. Most people don’t want to get involved with a wine list in front of others, so they are relieved and happy to let you have at it. The times that I’ve run into fellow wine geeks, it has become obvious pretty quick, then you can happily talk the list together or let them run the show.

I’ve done a number of these dinners, and one piece of advice is: Don’t hem and haw over it. Look decisive. Make the pick confidently and move on.

^^^^^ Paul said it perfectly.

Don’t overthink it. Deffer to the client, if they don’t choose… You do it. It’s only grape juice, even though we’re more than a little crazy about it.

This.