Assessing a wine list is a personal opinion that stems from years of experience that covers a wide variety of price and quality expectations. As advocates for our readers, Galaxy Guides has a responsibility to provide independent, informative advice. There are three important criteria that restaurant wine lists can be judged; quality, value for money and interest.
Aspects of quality include the knowledge and performance of staff, presentation with appropriate glassware and the intrinsic quality of the wines offered on the list. Not all restaurants can have a Master Sommelier, but polite, attentive staff with first hand experience and recommendations from the wine list goes along way. And, quality encompasses the individual wines selected by the restaurant and ensuring these are presented in sound condition.
Value for money is always taken in the context of the restaurant, fine dining will have a higher mark up on their wines than a lunchtime café, but you would expect better ambience, glassware and service. Paying $20 AUD plus for a glass of French Champagne served in a fine flute represents excellent value compared with paying $6 AUD for a tired, oxidised glass of cleanskin generic red presented in a clunky goblet.
Australia and the world of wine is a big place, and we would expect that the best restaurants reflect this diversity by offering wines of interest that compliment their cuisine. Restaurants that let a single distributor monopolise their wine list or sell their list to a single company show laziness and scant regard to providing their patrons with an exciting dining experience.

Duane Coates
Senior Wine Editor Galaxu Guides
www.coates-wines.com