How to Order Wine at a Fancy Restaurant

Plus: 19 Years with Craig, A Monday Night Dinner Party, and Lots of Links.

Hey everyone,

Do you get intimidated when a sommelier approaches your table? When handed a wine list with fifty pages, do you feel like you’re studying for the bar exam and you never even went to law school?

You’re not alone.

On Tuesday night, Craig and I were celebrating our 19th first date anniversary (can you believe that?) at Estela in SoHo, one of our favorite restaurants. We had cocktails to start — mine was a Negroni made with Sherry, which was really interesting — and then decided to order wine. “Maybe we should get a bottle?”

Craig always says that even though I was only planning on getting one glass. But since we were celebrating, and since Estela is a notable wine restaurant, I said: “Let’s do it.” The only problem? The wine list there is 48 pages long.