The Old Post Office, a glamorous restaurant housed in a historic Burlingame post office, opens Friday, and its wine list looks a little different from lists at all other Bay Area restaurants.
Many diners won’t notice the change — that the Old Post Office’s wine list emphasizes producers over region or varietal — but this subtle shift is noteworthy in the fine dining realm, and it could generate more conversations about wine in an era when some drinkers prefer to ask ChatGPT for recommendations over sommeliers.
Declining restaurant wine sales have recently sparked debates within the wine and hospitality industries about reinventing the wine list; many restaurants depend on alcohol sales, which typically have high margins and require minimal labor, to drive profits. Those discussions have often centered on simplifying lists to make them more approachable, either by shortening them — big lists can feel overwhelming — or by using easy-to-decipher category headings, like “light reds” and “high-acid whites,” instead of listing by region, varietal or “Sparkling,” “Reds,” etc…