Are Splurge Wine Pairings Worth It?

Wine pairings are designed to enhance your dining experience, especially during a multi-course meal where different styles of wine can better serve individual dishes or palates than a one-wine-fits-all selection. What’s more, putting yourself in the hands of wine pros who are excited to showcase their well-curated lists means you’re likely to get introduced to new grapes, producers, or styles. You may also get to try wines that may be financially out of range when sold by the bottle, but that are offered in a two- or three-ounce tasting pour.

There are wine pairings, however, and then there are splurge wine pairings. “The same way certain foods, like truffles, are special and complex, their addition can take a dish to the next level, like adding white truffles to risotto,” says Andy Fortgang, wine director for Portland’s Le Pigeon. “A 'reserve’ wine might just have that much more finesse, and raise the experience even higher. Just like the risotto itself is great without the truffles, the non-reserve wine pairings are great. It's just about getting to the next level.”

What are Splurge Wine Pairings?

You may not find the word “splurge” on a beverage menu per se, but “reserve” or “upgraded” are frequent terms used to describe a more expensive wine pairing option. Sometimes a higher tier pairing is an opportunity for a wine program to get creative: Smyth and The Loyalist in Chicago, for example, playfully entitles their splurge wine pairing option as the “Super Mega.”

For the purposes of this examination, “splurge” wine pairings are those that are offered beyond a restaurant’s standard pairing option, for a higher price. Depending on the regional market, the overall price point of a given restaurant, and the cost of the standard wine pairings, the “splurge” option could cost anywhere from $25 to $350 more. (This also speaks to the individual diner’s budget, to a degree. For some, the pairings are a splurge to begin with, so anything beyond that is really a splurge.) Regardless of level, the idea of various tiers of wine pairings indicates that the wine program is looking to show off a little and offer guests the opportunity to taste some special bottles from their program.

As San Francisco’s Lazy Bear, one of the splurgiest options that I found, “we offer a ‘Reserve’ pairing that used to be affectionately known as the 'YOLO' pairing,” says wine director Jacob Brown, whose top tier wine pairing option costs $500, compared to their standard pairing for $155. “We called it the YOLO pairing after the pandemic, as we saw this as an opportunity to showcase some of the best wines in our cellar. We want guests to feel like they’re at a restaurant and not in a museum,” he says. “Wines from the cellar are meant to be enjoyed and not hoarded like Smaug's treasure.”

Some restaurants, such as New York’s The Modern, don’t necessarily advertise an upgraded wine pairing, but are happy to read the table and work with guests and their budget to offer something different than the printed wine pairings, in which they cleverly offer the guest the option to “surrender.” “The ‘surrender’ option is for guests that are willing to spend money but do not recognize — or like — any or some of the wines on the wine pairing lineup, and would like a more personalized, curated selection based on their preferences,” says head sommelier Marcela Colonna. Depending on the budget, The Modern’s deep cellar includes selections from worldwide legends such as Diamond Creek, J.J. Prum, and Klein Constantia. Whether or not the restaurant offers an upgraded wine pairing option, or even a wine pairing at all, you can always ask about the possibility of stating a budget, splurging a little, and having the sommelier choose interesting wines for you.

What You Get with Upgraded Wine Pairings

All the pros here were keen to emphasize that offering an option for a higher price wine pairing was not meant to diminish the quality of the standard pairing offer. “Really our reserve pairings and our 'regular' pairings are approached the exact same way,” says Fortgang. “We look for wines that are balanced and interesting, and of course tasty, in order to help elevate the dish even higher. The reserve pairings give us a few more options; a bigger crayon box if you will.”

That being said, pairings worth splurging for will typically include selections that are not likely to ever be found on a list of wines by-the-glass. “We select wines from both our Reserve and ‘standard’ pairing from the best producers from both California and around the world,” says Brown, while the Reserve program also focuses on vintage depth. “For example, we are featuring a 1978 Inglenook Cabernet Sauvignon as a pairing with our lamb course, and we also feature a 2004 Mazoyeres-Chambertin from Domaine Taupenot-Merme with the summer squash and ham, both wines of which would normally have to opened by the bottle, but instead, at Lazy Bear, guests can enjoy them by the glass with their meal.

You might even see wines that are rare to find, even by the bottle. “With the Super Mega pairing, we aim to keep the same spirit of discovery and intrigue as the standard pairing. When we feel we've really dialed something in, it remains consistent across both levels,” says Louis Fabbrini, the wine director and assistant general manager of Smyth and The Loyalist. “We don’t think it’s as interesting to just pick nine or ten wines that are X% more expensive than the standard pairing,” he says. “Rather, we’ll use our best ideas for both, and then the extra budget to open three to four wines with the ‘Super Mega’ that are very special. The 'Super Mega' pairings change much more frequently since we typically acquire wines in quantities of just two or three bottles.”

2001 Hermitage from J.L. Chave, 2004 Barolo from Giuseppe Rinaldi, and 1993 Pinot Gris from Zind-Humbrecht

Think legendary producers and regions, and even vintages that may go back before some of us were even old enough to drink. Recent Super Mega offerings included the likes of a 2001 Hermitage from J.L. Chave, a 2004 Barolo from Giuseppe Rinaldi, and a 1993 Pinot Gris from Zind-Humbrecht — all bottles that would retail for hundreds of dollars, possibly into four digits on a restaurant’s bottle list.

Why Choose a Splurge Wine Pairing?

The Pigeon splurge wines photo courtesy of Leesa Renae

In the simplest terms, a splurge wine pairing is an opportunity to try wines that you might not otherwise have access to. “We're aiming for a few ‘wow - I can't believe you're pouring that!’ moments from wine-savvy guests,” says Fabbrini, “and for those less knowledgeable about wine, we hope to offer new ideas of what a luxurious wine can be.”

A great wine may be transcendental on its own, but food can enhance the wine as much as wine can enhance the food, which is all the more reason to let a great restaurant be the place for a wine splurge. Where better to enjoy sips from a legendary wine than somewhere whose food you also love. This is also why restaurants offer corkage programs, which allow those who collect epic wines to enjoy them alongside dishes they are not likely to be able to make at home for themselves.

Splurge pairings can also go beyond access and can be hyper-personalized to enhance the dining experience and showcase the knowledge and creativity of the wine team, depending on the depth of the cellar. “If the guest is a wine enthusiast, I can always find those rare or old bottles and tell stories on the wines,” says Colonna. “For guests that are visiting the USA, I love to offer American wines. For guests that are looking to try something new, there are always up-and-coming wine regions and new-wave winemakers,” she says. “For the guests that want a more sensory experience, I will suggest a blind wine pairing in which I pour wine away from the table and bring it to them to enjoy with our menu.”

“While we have a plan for what the reserve pairing is that night, we always take our guests’ preferences into account, making each and every experience unique,” says Brown. “If someone is interested in doing a white wine only pairing, we can do that. If someone is interested in an all-fortified flight, we can also do that. One time we did an entire sparkling wine flight for someone. Not only are the guests having fun with their experience but so are we! Having a cellar of our size allows us to flex creative muscles and think about pairings in new ways which guests might not be able to experience elsewhere.”

For some, this kind of attention from the wine team can easily justify the increased cost of the splurge pairing.

To Splurge or Not to Splurge

Head Sommelier Marcela Colonna at The Modern

Splurge wine pairings are not meant to be exclusionary, which is why they are offered in addition to a standard pairing, which shouldn’t be thought of as a lesser option. Furthermore, an excellent restaurant should never put pressure on a guest to choose the more expensive option, another point all were keen to emphasize. With the exception of The Modern, whose upgraded wine pairing experience is directed by the guest, all the other restaurants profiled here have the various pairing options, including their prices, printed on the menu. Upselling isn’t the goal, unless a guest enquires and seems open to it.

“Most of our guests who are well acquainted with wine see the value in the wines they get on both the beverage and reserve pairings,” says Brown, who acknowledges that his market in San Francisco allows for the level of splurge that they offer. “We never want to be pushy with what a guest is selecting. We want them to enjoy their dining experience but we also want them to walk away wowed by it, which I think they get with both pairings.”

“We don't pressure guests to choose the pairing, whether it's the standard or 'Super Mega,’” says Fabbrini. “The funny name indicates that this is something a little over the top, and there's no need to feel pressured to choose it to get the full Smyth experience. Practically, we explain that you'll see many of the same ideas enhanced with bottles that are very hard to come by.”

Those that choose upgraded pairings also represent a variety of scenarios, according to the professionals: diners with means who are unconcerned about the price, wine aficionados, those celebrating, or even fellow industry workers enhancing their own knowledge. According to Brown: “Whether it’s in their budget or not, our guests recognize that they will be experiencing something that is very difficult to recreate and may be a once in a lifetime experience for them.”