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2 W I N E & S P I R I T S R E P R I N T A P R I L 2 0 1 1

22ND ANNUAL RESTAURANT POLL

Here are the 50 most popular wine brands in America’s mostpopular restaurants; the wines diners order most.It’s a list that’s as notable for what turns up again and again (Cali-

fornia classics such as Cakebread, Sonoma-Cutrer, Duckhorn andothers) as for what’s missing (the trophy cabs that populated the listpre-recession) and what’s new (agiorgitiko from Greece, forinstance). It’s a reflection of the economy and a barometer of currenttrends—not to mention a handy crib sheet for brands diners trust. As always, American wines rule —with 54.1 percent of the Most

Popular Wines—despite lists that are increasingly diverse. “We’reabout two to one Old World to New World on the list, but sales-wise, the American wines are stronger,” says Billy Allin at Atlanta’sCakes & Ale.Maurice DiMarino, at Island Prime in San Diego, offersa list “with a little bit of everything, but most of what we sell arenames like Ferrari-Carano, wines diners know they’ll like.”That typically means chardonnay and cabernet, although this

year, for the first time, a pinot noir specialist broke into the TopTen: Merry Edwards came in ninth, followed by Chateau Ste.

Michelle, the growing popularity of its rieslings propelling it to num-ber ten. King Estate has also jumped up in the ranks, coming in atnumber 12—closing in on perennial favorite Santa Margherita.Things get even more interesting from there, with entries from

Italy, France, Argentina, New Zealand and Greece. Most notably,the malbec craze has landed Catena in 13th place, up from 21st lastyear; French Burgundy brands, in the meantime, have fallen off thelist. Sommeliers reported a trend away from expensive French wines,whether from Bordeaux or Burgundy, when we followed up withthem after the Poll results were tallied.

To compile this list, we asked restaurateurs to list the tenwines that sold best during the last three months of 2010. Thebrands that make up the Restaurant Top 50 are those that receivedthe most mentions, which we’ve calculated at mentions per 100respondents. To break ties in the rankings, we consider each brand’stotal points (see p. 74). The average price includes all bottlings thatsommeliers listed within the brand, at the prices they reported.

Rank Winery Mentions per 100 responses Average Price’10 ’09 ’08 ’07 ’06 ’05 ’04 ’03 ’02 ’01 ’00 ’10 ’09

1 Sonoma-Cutrer Vineyards 11.4 13.4 14.3 14.3 14.4 15.0 19.3 17.3 16.5 19.7 24.5 $49.43 $46.89Windsor, Sonoma Cty., CA

2 Cakebread Cellars 10.9 13.9 12.5 13.3 15.4 17.3 13.9 17.6 17.2 16.3 13.2 $88.82 $86.86Rutherford, Napa Vly., CA

3 Duckhorn Vineyards 9.9 7.2 4.4 4.3 10.1 8.5 7.5 10.6 7.8 8.5 8.3 $73.55 $72.87St. Helena, Napa Vly., CA

4 Jordan Vineyard & Winery 8.4 4.8 9.6 11.5 16.1 10.8 10.5 12.1 14.4 19.2 16.0 $91.94 $89.50Healdsburg, Sonoma Cty., CA

5 La Crema 8.4 6.2 3.7 5.7 4.4 2.3 2.7 4.5 3.0 3.1 – $44.24 $45.15Windsor, Sonoma Cty., CA

6 Rombauer Vineyards 7.4 7.2 6.3 7.5 7.0 6.9 5.4 3.3 3.8 5.6 3.0 $66.47 $66.33St. Helena, Napa Vly., CA

7 Stag’s Leap Wine Cellars 6.9 5.3 5.9 5.4 5.0 7.8 6.4 5.8 8.1 11.3 12.4 $94.92 $118.18Napa, Napa Vly., CA

8 Caymus Vineyards 6.4 2.4 5.5 8.2 8.1 7.8 7.1 4.5 5.8 5.9 6.3 $121.38 $93.00Rutherford, Napa Vly., CA

9 Merry Edwards 5.9 3.3 4.8 2.9 3.7 5.6 3.1 – 2.0 2.5 – $85.58 $94.71Windsor, Sonoma Cty., CA

10 Chateau Ste. Michelle 5.9 4.8 6.6 4.3 5.4 5.2 7.8 7.9 9.1 8.2 10.5 $34.75 $32.11Woodinville, WA

11 Santa Margherita 5.4 4.8 5.5 6.8 7.7 7.8 10.2 10.0 9.9 11.0 9.9 $48.82 $51.10Alto Adige, Italy

12 King Estate 5.4 3.8 – 3.9 3.7 2.0 2.7 2.4 4.6 – – $47.73 $47.00Eugene, OR

13 Catena 5.4 3.8 2.2 3.9 – – – 2.1 – – – $59.82 $46.75Mendoza, Argentina

14 Franciscan Oakville Estate 5.4 3.8 2.6 3.2 6.4 3.3 8.8 6.4 4.6 4.5 4.1 $50.91 $50.29Rutherford, Napa Vly., CA

15 Marchesi Antinori 5.4 2.4 4.0 4.3 6.0 6.2 3.4 6.1 7.8 4.2 7.4 $66.09 $97.20Firenze, Italy

50TOPthe restaurant

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W I N E & S P I R I T S R E P R I N T A P R I L 2 0 1 1 3

22ND ANNUAL RESTAURANT POLL

Diners continued to gravitate toward sauvignon blanc in 2010,choosing more popular bottlings from the US than from France orNew Zealand for the second year in a row. Some sommeliers go astep further: “Sauvignon blanc is definitely as popular as chardon-nay was before,” says Maximilian Kast of North Carolina’s TheFearrington House. Jean-Paul Henaff of Ame in San Francisco has been offering the

Honig Sauvignon Blanc, 2010’s most popular bottling, for severalyears. “It’s a really enjoyable wine with a good balance of fruit andacidity,” he says. “It seems like I’m always ordering more.” Cake-bread’s Sauvignon Blanc retained the number two spot. Tonya Pitts, who runs the wine program at San Francisco’s One

Market, points to diversity of style as a major factor in the success ofAmerican sauvignon blanc. “We pour the Capture Tradition, whichis made in a white Bordeaux style. We also carry Paul Dolan’s ver-sion. It’s more grassy, lemony. It’s great tobe able to get the flavor profile of an importat a very competitive price.”Among French wines, three Sancerres

grabbed spots on the list. Belinda Chang ofThe Modern in New York reports that hertop-selling wine in 2010 was the LucienCrochet Sancerre. “New Yorkers are San -cerre obsessed,” she comments.

New Zealand sauvignon remains as popular as French. At NewYork’s Buddakan, “A New Zealand sauvignon is our best-sellingwine,” says Kevin O’Rourke. “Number two is a Sancerre.”

% Share of Points Avg. Price

by Country ’08 ’09 ’10 ’08 ’09 ’10America 28.8% 39.9% 38.5% $43.45 $45.66 $44.54France 33.1 28.9 26.4 51.98 56.92 55.94New Zealand 30.9 25.3 26.2 43.18 41.92 41.76Chile - - 4.5 - - 32.33

Overall Average Price $46.04 $47.62 $46.62(Data reflects the fourth quarter of the year indicated.)

’95 ’96 ’97 ’98 ’99 ’00 ’01 ’02 ’03 ’04 ’05 ’06 ’07 ’08 ’09 ’10

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sauvignon blanc

most popular sauvignon blancsRank Pts. Winery Bottling Price $

1 36 Honig Napa Vly. $39Rutherford, Napa Vly., CA

2 31 Cakebread Cellars Napa Vly. $58Rutherford, Napa Vly., CA

3 28 Lucien Crochet Sancerre Le Chêne $73Sancerre, France Sancerre La Croix du Roy $64

4 26 Cloudy Bay Marlborough $67Marlborough, New Zealand

5 25 Château de Sancerre Sancerre $51Sancerre, France

6 22 Fournier Père & Fils Sancerre $48Verdigny, Sancerre, France Sancerre Cuvée Silex $90

7 20 Craggy Range Martinborough Te Muna Road $42Hawke’s Bay, New Zealand

8 18 Duckhorn Vineyards Napa Vly. $53Rutherford, Napa Vly., CA

9 17 Merry Edwards Russian River Valley $63Windsor, Sonoma Cty., CA

10 16 Sterling Vineyards Napa Vly. $37Calistoga, CA

11 15 Kim Crawford Marlborough $44Marlborough, New Zealand

12 15 Frog’s Leap Winery Rutherford $49Rutherford, Napa Vly., CA

13 8 Nobilo Marlborough $35Auckland, New Zealand

When we conduct our research for this feature, we ask restaurateurs to list their ten top-selling wines in order of popularity. We then assign point values to the listed wines—fromten points for the most popular wine on the list, to one point for the tenth most popular.The total points a brand accumulates determine its placement in the following cate-gories, grouped by variety and country of origin. The average restaurant wine list pricesfor individual bottlings appear in the far-right column of each chart.

WINESPOPULARby variety and countr y

most

sauvignon blanc as a % of top-selling wines

share of sauvignon blanc points & average price

“In December I sold so much Sancerre it was scary.

I could have applied for the mayorship.”—Aldo Sohm, Le Bernardin, NYC

4 W I N E & S P I R I T S R E P R I N T A P R I L 2 0 1 1

22ND ANNUAL RESTAURANT POLL

“There’s almost no one looking for merlot,” observes MichaelWild of BayWolf in Oakland, California. Indeed, merlot accountedfor a meager 2.9 percent of the Most Popular Wines in 2010, itsweakest showing in the history of our Poll and a far cry from thelate 1990s, when it regularly made up 15 percent. Still, merlot continues to offer a viable alternative to the more

popular cabernet. Jeff Bradley of The Mercury Grill in Dallas hasbeen shepherding his customers away from high-octane cabernettoward merlot-dominant blends. “I’ve been pouring Northstar’sStella Maris blend from Washington State,” he says. “It’s a softerstyle of wine, and people love it.”

At Restaurant Eugene in Atlanta, Georgia, Jeff Hagley has moresuccess with an Old-World style of merlot, citing the Lambert Bridge2006 with lamb. “It’s not that fat, juicy style,” he says. “Merlot is stillreeling from the Sideways effect, so people immediately movetowards cabernet sauvignon. But a lot of merlots are just as full andrich as cabernet, and people are happy once they taste them.”

most popular merlotsRank Pts. Winery Bottling Price $1 45 Duckhorn Vineyards Napa Vly. $98

Rutherford, Napa Vly., CA

2 16 Frog’s Leap Winery Napa Vly. $80Rutherford, Napa Vly., CA

3 12 Shafer Vineyards Napa Vly. $73Napa, Napa Vly., CA

4 7 Franciscan Oakville Estate Napa Vly. $41Rutherford, Napa Vly., CA

merlot

% Share of Points Avg. Price

by Country ’08 ’09 ’10 ’08 ’09 ’10America 77.0% 76.7% 79.6% $51.09 $54.98 $57.67France 16.1 13.0 19.2 77.00 57.66 72.33

by Appellation ’08 ’09 ’10 ’08 ’09 ’10Napa Valley 35.4% 30.4% 40.0% $59.26 $65.04 $73.95Sonoma 9.2 9.7 4.1 47.90 48.83 43.50Washington 14.6 16.8 18.8 46.92 47.20 42.55Bordeaux 16.1 12.9 19.2 77.00 57.66 72.33St-Emilion 11.5 11.8 3.6 53.86 56.28 60.00

Overall Average Price $54.66 $53.46 $58.98(Data reflects the fourth quarter of the year indicated.)

’95 ’96 ’97 ’98 ’99 ’00 ’01 ’02 ’03 ’04 ’05 ’06 ’07 ’08 ’09 ’10

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merlot as a % of top-selling wines

share of merlot points & average price

“Traditional styles of merlot are slowlybut surely making a comeback.”—Jeff Hagley, Restaurant Eugene, Atlanta