Is house wine good? It depends, experts say. Here’s what to look for and when to avoid it

Wine lists can be daunting, whether they run to 10 pages and 200 bottle options, or are short but unintelligible, packed with niche grape varieties. If you don’t consider yourself a wine aficionado, or want something that will not break the bank, bar jabbing a finger at the list and hoping for the best, chances are you will choose a glass of the house. But even this can be a fraught decision. After all, with a sommelier looming over you, isn’t it a bit cheap to order the house wine? And doesn’t it reveal you to be a complete wine dunce? “No one likes to look cheap, do they?” says Katie Fecak, wine educator and owner of London-based boutique wine-tasting business Cellar Door Social. It is a scenario that often leads people to order the second wine on the list instead. “But restaurants know people don’t want to look cheap, so the highest mark-up is normally on the second wine.” Things to consider when ordering house wine Some restaurants and hotels work with vineyards to produce their own branded house wine, which you can often buy to take home. “It is a very good idea,” says Remi Cousin, head sommelier at Wild in Hertfordshire, in the east of England, who was head sommelier at Michel Roux Jnr’s two-Michelin-star restaurant Le Gavroche (now closed). “However, if restaurants are doing house wine just for the fact of having house wine, and your staff are not trained, they don’t taste the wine, they don’t know what they’re talking about, if they don’t know the location, the grapes, then it doesn’t make sense. “If it’s just to have a cheap wine without quality control, it is letting down the establishment.” Restaurants ‘know people are going to buy a lot of it, so it’s going to be a real crowd-pleaser’ Wine educator Katie Fecak on house wines At joints that do have their own specific, branded house wines, check that they have options across the board. “I believe we have to extend it to champagne, white, red, rosé and sweet wine,” Cousin says. “I don’t think it is fair to do just white or just red and nothing else.” House wines may be the cheapest, but that doesn’t mean they are a bad choice. “A house wine will normally offer the best value and affordability, because it usually is the cheapest option,” Fecak says, adding that restaurants “know people are going to buy a lot of it, so it’s going to be a real crowd-pleaser. It’s normally from a lesser-known region as well, so you’re also getting a bit more value for money.” Cousin agrees: “With house wine, usually you have a little bit more quantity available, which gives you a little bit more flexibility, better value for money, without compromising on the quality. “If someone asks for house wine, I will go with the cheapest wine. We don’t have our own house wine at Wild, but our cheapest wine is already of very good quality.” “House wine can feel like a bit of a gamble, but actually, teams at boutique, independent restaurants would have tried many wines to find their favourite,” Fecak says. “That’s their pride; they’re really putting themselves on show with their house wine. “It will [often] be a hidden gem. Sommeliers are complete wine nerds, and that’s basically their neck on the line. They’ve chosen the one that’s going to make the restaurant the most money.” “If all it says is ‘house red’ or ‘house white’, I would run a mile,” Fecak says. “You want it really to include at least the grape variety and the vintage; that’s a sign that the restaurant actually cares about what they’re putting on their menu, and it’s not the bottom-of-the-barrel wine.” Fecak says because it is such a crowd-pleaser, house wine “usually has the highest turnover; more people are ordering it, so you’re going to be getting a fresher glass”. “If you’re ordering a more expensive glass, that bottle could have been open for a few days already at the back of the fridge. [With house] you’re less likely to be drinking an oxidised glass that was opened last Tuesday,” she adds. For foodies, “the disadvantage is that the house wine will not be significantly paired to the meal you’ve chosen”, Fecak says, adding that restaurants “normally select a house wine for a wide range of palates and a broad spectrum of what’s on the menu”. How can the sommelier help you choose? While Fecak says she has “no shame in ordering the house”, Cousin hedges his bets slightly: “It all depends. That’s the problem with a sommelier: we always say it depends! When I started at Le Gavroche, the house champagne was AR Lenoble, which I know, and when I saw that, I was like, ‘Wow, that’s a very good quality.’ So, of course, I tasted straightaway.” Usually, though, he will consider the mood of the meal. If he is sharing plates with friends, he will pick the wine based on what will go with the dishes selected; if he is out for dinner or lunch and has picked the place, he will order the best-value wine (whatever the price) and be “guided by that”. “The sommelier is there to help you,” Fecak says. “They will point you in the right direction based on your price point. “You’ll obviously get a more interesting wine if you order something that isn’t the house wine, [but] if you’re there just to have an easy-drinking, easy-flowing, nice evening, go for the house.”

Is house wine good? It depends, experts say. Here’s what to look for and when to avoid it

.css-1c6uqr6{color:inherit;font-weight:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-family:inherit;line-height:inherit;overflow-wrap:break-word;}A sommelier and a wine educator share why house wine can be the best-value, freshest choice at restaurants and some drawbacks to be aware of

Things to consider when ordering house wine

A sommelier and a wine educator share why house wine can be the best-value, freshest choice at restaurants and some drawbacks to be aware of