英語資源頻道為大家整理的chinadaily雙語新聞：七步讓你成為選酒專家，供大家閱讀參考。
How do you feel when you're handed the wine list at a restaurant? If you're like most people, you feel uncomfortable. You've got this huge listing of largely unrecognizable things in front of you and you're supposed to make some sort of snap judgment that could cost you real money - and embarrass you with your dining companions, too.
But even if you're no expert, there are easy ways to decipher a list. And there's good reason to try: A memorable wine can make a meal more romantic, a bigger business success and just more fun. Check out the index accompanying this column; aren't experiences like those worth just a little bit of extra effort? And it's not so hard, no matter how big the wine list. Just follow these seven simple steps:
1. Take your time. A few seconds after handing you the biggest wine list in the world, the waiter will come over and say, 'Have you made your selection?' or 'Do you need help?' Just look up, smile and say, 'You have such an interesting list. It'll take me a few minutes to decide.' At this point, the waiter will think you know what you're doing and will leave you alone.
2. Decide if you want red or white. If you're with a date or business colleagues, just ask: 'Hey, do you like red or white?' If it's lunch, the answer will almost always be white. The rest of the time, the answer will usually be, 'Whatever you think.' So if it's lunch, go with white. Otherwise, think about what kind of restaurant you're in. Maybe ask to look at the menu. Fish restaurant? White. Steak joint? Red. This single decision cuts the wine list in half.
3. Does the restaurant specialize in a certain type of wine? If there are 20 Italian wines listed and five U.S. wines, the owner cares more about Italian wine. Go with it.
4. Eliminate the showcase wines. Many restaurants that have huge lists specialize in expensive French 'first growth' wines, like Chateau Lafite-Rothschild. Are you going to order those wines? Of course not. Mentally, cross them off.
5. Now, among what's left, look for wines you already know - and cross them off, too. Hey, if you can buy the same wine from the corner wine store for half the price, it's not going to be much fun drinking it at a restaurant, is it? Look for something new.
6. Decide what you are willing to spend. Maybe you had planned to spend $25, but there's just about nothing on the list at $25. Think about $35. Whatever the price - and be flexible; c'mon, you're eating out - decide what you're willing to spend and mentally strike out everything else.
7. You've decided red or white, focused on what the restaurant specializes in, eliminated the showcase wines, crossed off wines you already know and decided what you can spend. How many wines could possibly be left? Just a handful, we'd guess. So pick two or three. At this point, say to the waiter, 'I can't decide among these wines' - and, wait, the next sentence is the key. Do not say, 'What would you recommend?' Sad to say, in many cases, the waiter really doesn't have a clue and will simply choose one. Instead, say, 'What can you tell me about them?' This may flummox the waiter - who will then send over someone who actually knows something about wine. Ignore what he says. Instead, watch his eyes and his body language. You'll know which wine he is most excited about.
Order it. And don't worry about it. If it's not terrific, it's still something new and different. And if it's special, well, maybe something like this will happen to you:
There is a famous steak restaurant in Tampa, Fla., called Bern's, with a wine list the size of the Manhattan white pages. We looked for wines we had never had, and one caught our eye: something called Wine by Wheeler from Nicasio Vineyards in California, vintage 1961. We found this old vineyard earlier in one of our ancient wine books, and it was such a moving story - about how a young couple, Dan and Bette Wheeler, had a dream about making wine, how they built the winery with their bare hands, how it was a labor of love.
But when the wine arrived at our table, there was something unusual. The charming label said: 'Work is the ruin of the drinking classes.' There was a hand-written signature of Dan Wheeler and, in his handwriting: '1961 Vintage.'
But there, just above that, where it had said, 'Produced and bottled at Nicasio Vineyards, Soquel, Calif., by Bette and Dan Wheeler,' someone, with the same pen, had crossed out 'Bette and.'
We asked to see Bern Laxer, who owned the place then. 'Damnedest thing,' he said. 'One day, Dan Wheeler came in here, said he'd gotten a divorce and demanded to see every wine of his in the cellar. And he stood there and crossed off his wife's name on every bottle.'
We don't know if Bern was pulling our leg - we tried without success to reach Mr. Wheeler for this column. But, while we have had better wines than the 1961 Wine by Wheeler, this is the only label that we have framed and hanging on our wall.
Dorothy J. Gaiter / John Brecher
(This article was adapted from a Tastings column by Dorothy J. Gaiter and John Brecher published in June 1998.)
當(dāng)餐廳服務(wù)員遞給你一份葡萄酒單時(shí)，你做何感想?如果你跟大多數(shù)人一樣，那么這種感覺就是“手足無措”。你面前是一長(zhǎng)列大多不認(rèn)識(shí)的酒名，而你必須很快做出反應(yīng)，選擇一款要拿真金白銀去換的酒──如果應(yīng)對(duì)不當(dāng)，可能還會(huì)讓你和你的同伴尷尬不已。
不過，就算你不是品酒專家，還是有簡(jiǎn)單的辦法可以幫你破譯酒單，而且，這種嘗試是值得的：一款令人印象深刻的葡萄酒能讓用餐變得更加浪漫，生意談得更成功，也讓人感覺更愉悅。讀者不妨看看這個(gè)專欄的文章索引，那些特殊的體驗(yàn)難道不值得你為此做出一點(diǎn)額外的努力嗎?不管酒單有多長(zhǎng)，其實(shí)都可以化繁為簡(jiǎn)，而且過程并不難。你所要做的，就是按以下七個(gè)簡(jiǎn)單的步驟行事：
1、別著急，慢慢來。遞給你全世界最長(zhǎng)的酒水單后，剛過幾秒鐘侍者就會(huì)過來問：“您選好了嗎?”或“能為您效勞嗎?”這時(shí)候，你應(yīng)該抬起頭來，微笑著回答：“這份酒單很有意思，我看幾分鐘后再做決定。”如此一來，侍者會(huì)認(rèn)為你很懂酒，暫時(shí)不會(huì)再來打攪。
2、決定要紅葡萄酒還是白葡萄酒。如果你是跟人約會(huì)或和同事吃飯，只要問一下對(duì)方：“你喜歡紅葡萄酒還是白葡萄酒?”如果是吃午餐，絕大多數(shù)回答都是“白葡萄酒”。在其他場(chǎng)合，回答通常是“隨便，你選吧。”因此，如果是午餐，那就選白葡萄酒;如果不是，那就要看你在什么樣的餐廳里頭。這時(shí)，不妨把菜單要過來看看。如果是一家做魚為主的餐廳，那就喝白葡萄酒。如果吃牛排為主，那就選紅酒。這樣一個(gè)簡(jiǎn)簡(jiǎn)單單的決定就能把酒單的內(nèi)容砍掉一半。
3、那個(gè)餐廳是不是更側(cè)重某一類葡萄酒?如果酒單上有20款意大利葡萄酒和5款美國葡萄酒，則說明餐廳老板更看重意大利葡萄酒，那就不妨選一款意大利的。
4、讓僅供展示的葡萄酒出局。許多餐廳厚厚的酒單上有很大一部分是昂貴的法國“特級(jí)精選”(first growth)葡萄酒，比如拉菲•羅施爾德莊園葡萄酒(Chateau Lafite-Rothschild)。你真的要點(diǎn)這種酒嗎?當(dāng)然不。所以，在腦子里直接把這類酒過濾掉。
5、現(xiàn)在，在剩下的酒單里，尋找你早就知道的葡萄酒──把它們也過濾掉。想想看，如果你能在街邊的葡萄酒商店里以一半的價(jià)格買到同樣的酒，那么在餐廳里喝這種酒的心情就不會(huì)太好，對(duì)不對(duì)?要選你覺得新鮮的。
6、決定要花多少錢。也許你打算花25美元，但酒水單上沒有25美元的葡萄酒，那就考慮35美元的。不管酒單上的價(jià)格多么參差不齊，決定你自己愿意花多少錢，在腦子里把別的葡萄酒統(tǒng)統(tǒng)過濾掉──不過也還是要靈活一點(diǎn)，畢竟是在外面用餐嘛。
7、你已經(jīng)選定了紅葡萄酒或者白葡萄酒，注意到餐廳所側(cè)重的品種，讓那些當(dāng)擺設(shè)用的葡萄酒出局、過濾掉自己熟悉的品種，并決定了要花多少錢?，F(xiàn)在，酒單上還剩下幾種酒?我想已經(jīng)屈指可數(shù)了。那么，選上兩三種，然后對(duì)侍者說：“這幾種我決定不下來?！钡鹊?，下一句話至關(guān)重要。不要說“你推薦哪一種?”很遺憾，在很多情況下，侍者并不真正了解葡萄酒，只會(huì)隨便為你選一種。你得這樣問：“你能說說它們各自的特點(diǎn)嗎?”這會(huì)讓侍者腦子發(fā)蒙，然后他就會(huì)叫真正對(duì)葡萄酒有所了解的人出來救場(chǎng)。面對(duì)那個(gè)人的時(shí)候，不要聽他說什么，而是要觀察他的眼睛和肢體語言，你會(huì)注意到他對(duì)哪款酒最有激情。
發(fā)現(xiàn)之后，就要那一款。別擔(dān)心，即使品嘗后覺得不怎么樣，至少這是一個(gè)全新的體驗(yàn)。如果酒真的很好很特別，那么，這頓飯可能也會(huì)給你帶來同樣的感覺。
佛羅里達(dá)州的坦帕灣(Tampa)有一家的牛排店，名叫Bern's，那里的酒水單有曼哈頓電話簿那么厚。我們?cè)趩巫由蠈ふ覐臎]品嘗過的品種，突然有所發(fā)現(xiàn)：那是一款名叫Wine by Wheeler的葡萄酒，產(chǎn)自加州的Nicasio Vineyard葡萄酒莊園，1961年釀造。之前，我們?cè)谝槐揪眠h(yuǎn)的葡萄酒書籍上讀到過這個(gè)酒莊，那是個(gè)非常感人的故事──有一對(duì)名叫丹•威勒(Dan Wheeler)和貝蒂•威勒(Bette Wheeler)的年輕夫婦，他們的夢(mèng)想就是釀造出自己的葡萄酒。他們白手起家建立起酒莊，滿懷熱愛地勞作。
然而，當(dāng)這瓶葡萄酒上桌時(shí)，我們又發(fā)現(xiàn)了一些不同尋常的東西。酒標(biāo)上印著一句話：“工作乃酒客之墓?！?Work is the ruin of the drinking classes.)，上面還有丹•威勒的親筆簽名，并手寫“1961年釀造”。
在簽名的上方，還印著一段文字：“加州Soquel市Nicasio Vineyards酒莊丹•威勒和貝蒂•威勒釀造并裝瓶，”。然而，有人用跟簽名同樣印記的一支筆，把“貝蒂•威勒”的字樣劃掉了。
我們叫來當(dāng)時(shí)的餐廳老板伯恩•拉克瑟(Bern Laxer)，問他這是怎么回事?！巴上У囊患拢彼f，“有一天，丹•威勒到我們這兒來，說他已經(jīng)離婚了，并要求看看我們酒窖里每一瓶產(chǎn)自他酒莊的葡萄酒。然后，他就站在那里，把每張酒標(biāo)上他妻子的名字給劃掉了?！? 我們不知道這是不是伯恩開的一個(gè)玩笑。就這篇文章，我們?cè)噲D與丹•威勒取得聯(lián)系，但沒有聯(lián)系上。不過，盡管這瓶1961年Wheeler并不是我們喝過的的葡萄酒，但這瓶酒的酒標(biāo)是我們裱起來并掛上 壁的一個(gè)酒標(biāo)。