How A Top Sommelier Builds A Wine List — Boss Hunting

The easiest wine list to write is the one nobody ever has to order from. Fill it with Burgundy, Bordeaux, Rhône, a few special Australian Chardonnays and Pinots. Ignore allocations. Ignore margins. Ignore the minor inconvenience of other people’s tastes, or their bank balances. It will be magnificent.

But what happens when someone actually has to drink from it? Or when the list belongs to a venue with expectations already doing laps around the block? That was the challenge facing Ishan…