What makes a really great restaurant wine list? Is it the depth and diversity of the selection, how well the wines go with the food, or the friendliness and knowledge of the staff? Or is it all of the above?

I’ve been mulling over such questions recently, following the announcement of the Diners award for South Africa’s Best Wine List, with Zachary’s restaurant at Pezula in Knysna and Bosman’s at the Grande Roche in Paarl jointly winning the top prize.

I’m also just back from a culinary tour of London (where I picked up a few extra pounds in both monetary and bodily value), which arguably offers the most exciting international selection of wine and some of the most knowledgeable sommeliers in the world.

So what distinguishes the wine at Zachary’s and Bosman’s? Firstly, the wine selections are certainly vast (around 600 different bottles in both). But it’s not just about size. Both restaurants go to great lengths to create wine lists that offer variety, both in terms of style and price, and lists that are relevant to the style of cuisine. As Werner Wentzel, wine director at Pezula, points out, ‘You need to have a passion for wine to have a great list. But there’s no point in just having a big list, you need depth and variety and you can’t just sell the wines you like.’

A great wine list also has to offer something for everyone, according to Josephine Gutentoft, head sommelier at Bosman’s. ‘It’s not just about having good wines, the list has to be balanced,’ she says.

In terms of service, a great wine restaurant invests in training its staff so they can, in turn, enthuse their customers. I’ve always found it a shame and rather short-sighted that many South African restaurants don’t bother to teach their staff about wine. Often there is no-one, let alone a sommelier, who can offer advice. My Capetonian father-in-law often relates the tale of a waiter who plonked down a 3-foot tall ice bucket in the middle of the table. But who can blame him if he hasn’t been taught properly? I’ll let restaurant owners in on a secret: we customers are more willing to splash out on expensive wines if we are told the story behind them.

Both Bosman’s and Zachary’s hold regular staff tastings. Wentzel, who employs all his waiters from the local area, says he is overjoyed when someone who two years ago claimed to hate wine now says a wine tastes ‘horrible’ and can give reasons why.

In my view, other differences between a mediocre and excellent wine list are a good by-the-glass and carafe choice, a reasonable selection of older vintages, and wines that are well-matched to the style of cuisine.

Many people are intimidated when it comes to ordering wine in fine-dining restaurants. Here are a few tips:

• Don’t be intimidated by sommeliers, but do use them to help you choose a wine you will enjoy. They are there to help you – remember restaurants make their biggest profits from wine.
• Don’t let a sommelier pressurise you into buying a more expensive bottle than you intended.
• Do have an idea about what kind of wine styles you do and don’t like. It will help the sommelier if you have a few descriptors to hand.
• There are no hard and fast rules about matching food with wine – what you enjoy is right every time. But bearing a few pointers in mind will help bring out the best in both.
• Choose a wine that matches the acidity of the food, for example tomato dishes with Sauvignon Blanc. Likewise, a sweet dish needs to be matched with the sweetness in a wine, for example eating a dessert with a late harvest wine. Try to match the body and weight of the dish with the wine – a delicate dish such as oysters would not suit a heavy shiraz. Generally, really salty or spicy dishes do not suit heavy, tannic red wines. A simple dish allows the flavours of an old, rare wine to shine through. But sometimes a contrast works well, for example blue cheese with a rare dessert wine, or an acidic wine that cuts through the richness of buttery fish.
• Wentzel’s current favourites include risotto with crab, broad beans and preserved lemon with Steenberg Semillon, and potato gnocchi with sweet peas, home-cured molasses ham and poached egg with Ambeloui Cap Classique. Gutentoft enjoys veal roulade with sweetbread, mushroom velouté and truffle foam with Thelema Merlot, and passion fruit parfait with yoghurt mousse and litchi gelée with Laibach Late Harvest Sauvignon Blanc.

By Claire Hu