This is part of a series. If you haven’t read the introduction yet, start here: https://hautdegamme.net/2026/08/07/the-curious-drinkers-guide-to-wine-advice-from-writers-sommeliers-and-insiders/

The introduction explains why wine curiosity matters, why restaurants are losing wine expertise, and how you can become an explorer rather than defaulting to what you already know. Each contributor in the series shares a different approach to discovering wine.

Amanda Wassmer-Bulgin, a sommelier, offers frameworks for building confidence around a wine list:

Amanda Wassmer-Bulgin

We speak two languages. We, as sommeliers, presume it’s universal. But it isn’t. So my first advice to a guest who wants to explore: don’t try to speak ours, speak your language. You don’t need tasting vocabulary or a WSET hobby – “I like crisp and dry” or “I had a lovely wine from Provence once” are complete sentences, and it’s the most useful thing you can give anyone pouring your wine.

Right now, restaurants are nervous. Guests are spending less, so lists are retreating to the safe numbers – Pinot Grigio, Chardonnay. Understandable, but it’s exactly the wrong moment to stop being curious, because the potential is huge. Look at what beer did. The craft movement got everyday drinkers happily ordering sours and hazy IPAs with zero formal knowledge – because they kept the language simple, the formats small, and the stakes low. Gin did the same. Wine can too, and the guest holds half the power.

So how do you start? Order the glass, not the bottle. A glass is low risk and, crucially, it’s yours alone – no label to live up to, no expectations from the table. And a glass you don’t love isn’t a failure – it’s data. You’ve learned something about your own palate. Nobody regrets that.

Then work by comparison, and here’s my shortcut: beyond the winemaker, nothing shapes a wine’s style more than climate. So note where your favourite wine comes from – not just the grape, the place. Love cool-climate freshness? That thread runs through Chablis, but also Txakoli and Alpine wines like a Petite Arvine from the Valais. Love silky Pinot? Try a Lagrein from Alto Adige – same refinement, velvety tannins, slightly darker fruit. Ask yourself why you love your usual bottle – texture, freshness, weight – and follow that feeling somewhere new. You’re not abandoning your favourite, you’re following its thread.

Two last tricks from the psychology of the table. Order the unknown first – openness is highest at the start of a meal; by dessert everyone defaults to safe. And go in curious, not sceptical: we genuinely taste what we expect to taste, so curiosity makes the wine better.

And keep an anchor on the table – but make it a clever one. Stay in Burgundy, but go Aligoté. The table feels safe, nobody feels lost – everyone knows, or feels they know, what and where Burgundy is – so the only thing to get your head around is the grape. Same with Spain: universally known for great wine, so that’s your anchor. Then think of your last holiday to Tenerife – still known ground – and go for a local grape. Find familiarity in the familiar. And then? Just have fun. Trust your own taste too. It’s the only palate that matters at your table.

Amanda Wassmer-Bulgin is an award-winning sommelière and co-founder and COO of the Wassmer Family Group, home to the three-Michelin-star Sven Wassmer Memories and one-star Verve by Sven. An international wine judge, lecturer and speaker, she has pioneered non-alcoholic pairings in fine dining since 2013.