DATE: Sunday, November 2, 1997              TAG: 9710290058

SECTION: FLAVOR                  PAGE: F1   EDITION: FINAL 

COLUMN: WINES & SPIRITS

SOURCE: BY M.F. ONDERDONK, CORRESPONDENT 

                                            LENGTH:   91 lines

RESTAURANTS ENJOY INTOXICATING EFFECT OF WINE SPECTATOR AWARDS

HOW DO we love this wine list? Let us count the ways. We love it to the depth and breadth and height the restaurant's cellar can reach. And thus does the Wine Spectator love it also.

The famed wine journal - prized as much for its place in the culture of consumption as for its ratings, which may well determine a wine's retail success - has done much to honor the long-running love affair between good restaurants and good wine.

Beyond lots of restaurant coverage, including reviews written by the esteemed John Mariani, the magazine presents annual awards for restaurant wine programs, tiered in categories that roughly translate to ``well done'' (Award of Excellence), ``wonderful'' (Best Award of Excellence), and ``somewhere over the rainbow'' (the Grand Award).

For 1998, a total of 1,954 awards have been made, 34 to restaurants in Virginia.

In greater Hampton Roads, two Williamsburg restaurants - the Kitchen at Powhatan Plantation and la yaca - were recognized for the first time, both with the Award of Excellence.

Meredith Nicolls, food and beverage manager for Powhatan Plantation, says this was his first application for the award, made by submitting a letter describing the restaurant and its wine program, along with the wine list and menus. (The Kitchen's bill of fare changes almost weekly.)

When the issue, which named the winners, arrived in the mail, Nicolls says, ``I opened it up and - there we were!'' The Kitchen's list has about 80 selections, mainly representing fine California growers and major regions of France, as well as a few Virginia highlights. The quandary, says Nicolls, is keeping the inventory down while ensuring that customers have access to consistently good vintages.

``We can't afford to warehouse hoards and hoards of wine,'' he points out. So the alternative is constantly staying abreast of what's new and good.

``We try to have wines that are food wines, and appeal to a broad range of palates.'' Because the Kitchen's speciality is game cookery, Nicolls takes special pride in keeping on hand a strong selection of zinfandels.

In being honored with the Award of Excellence, the Kitchen and le yaca join six other area establishments - Aldo's, Bobbywood, La Galleria, The Regency Room, Ships Cabin and the Trellis.

Only the Dining Room at Ford's Colony - a Williamsburg restaurant famed for an extensive cellar, as well as special tasting menus and gala dinners - received the Wines Spectator's Best Award of Excellence.

And to quaff at the nearest that has won the coveted Grand Award, one would need to arm one's self with a large balance on an appropriate credit card, then head for that horsy, heady country 'twixt D.C. and Charlottesville. There lies the Inn at Little Washington, also widely deemed one of the best - and priciest - dining rooms in the country. A Grand Award winner since 1995, the Inn boasts a cellar of 950 labels, backed up by a 14,000-bottle inventory.

Wine Spectator awards criteria are compressed into a holy wine trinity - breadth (range of wines), depth (range of vintages), and balance (overall quality).

But - ``I don't think anyone really knows what Wine Spectator's criteria is on anything,'' quips Bobby Huber, chef and owner of Bobbywood, which snared an Award of Excellence for the second year running. Nonetheless, an award winner will certainly have a representative sampling of wines for the best wine-growing regions.

The list should be vintage-dated, with vintages reflecting the best years for that particular label. There must be a harmony between the restaurant's style of cuisine and its wine selection. It also works to a restaurant's advantage if staffers know not only how to serve the wine, but what it tastes like, so they can give informed opinions on matches with the food.

Not that waiters and waitresses cringe in fear of random grading on such fine points as whether they display the bottle to the host before opening it or if they then hand over the cork for inspection. For only when evaluating a restaurant for the Grand Award does the Wine Spectator send representatives to dine, as well as survey the cellar and interview the owners.

To win the Grand Award, the journal notes, ``It takes an incredible amount of time and money to achieve, but it's worth it. . . ''

Meanwhile, how fortunate that - thanks to a burgeoning abundance of good wine and the increasing commitment of restaurateurs to this abundance - simply enjoying a good bottle with a good meal is easier than ever to do, accessible (in more words borrowed from Mrs. Browning) ``to the level of everyday's most quiet need.'' MEMO: M.F. Onderdonk, former wine and restaurant critic for Flavor, now

lives in Illinois. ILLUSTRATION: Color photo

For 1998, a total of 1,954 awards have been made...

Photo

FILE

Only when evaluating a restaurant for the Grand Award does the Wine

Spectator send representatives to dine, as well as survey the

cellar.

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