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A Veranda report compares choosing wine with buying art, drawing on advice from Meadowood Napa Valley’s Sarah Bray and sommelier Elyse Lovenworth. Their practical suggestions include setting a budget, describing the style or mood you like in everyday language, and asking a sommelier for guidance; the comparison is an analogy, not a claim that wine and art have the same value or purpose.
A Veranda report draws a comparison between choosing wine and buying art, citing advice from Sarah Bray, associate director of The Wine Center at Meadowood Napa Valley, and Elyse Lovenworth, a Philadelphia-based lead sommelier. Their central recommendation is practical: tell a sommelier what styles, moods and price range appeal to you, rather than feeling you need specialist vocabulary or a single “right” answer.
Bray told Veranda that diners can approach wine selection as they might describe the look or feeling they want from a work of art. Instead of asking for a broad category such as white wine, a customer might say they prefer something light and crisp or rich and silky. The report says the occasion and intended budget can also help narrow the options.
Lovenworth said sommeliers can help customers who want to make an informed choice but are not confident selecting a bottle on their own. The report presents the expert’s role as guidance rather than a verdict: a professional can suggest wines that fit a customer’s preferences and introduce options they may not have tried. Bray and Lovenworth also recommend bringing up bottles or styles a customer has liked—or disliked—to start that conversation.
The comparison extends to how wine changes from year to year. Bray said wines from the same site may share characteristics while tasting different across vintages, in part because each year offers winemakers a distinct set of growing conditions. The article also emphasizes that taste is subjective: professional recommendations are opinions, and the wine a customer enjoys need not match an expert’s personal preference.
A More Useful Restaurant Wine Conversation
The advice addresses a common barrier to ordering wine: customers may worry that they need technical knowledge to communicate what they want. The report’s approach makes the conversation more accessible by encouraging diners to describe texture, mood and personal taste in familiar words. That can give a sommelier more useful information than an overly broad request while leaving room for the customer to make the final choice.
Setting a price range before discussing options can also help keep recommendations aligned with what a diner is comfortable spending. The analogy does not establish that wine is an investment or that a particular bottle will gain value; it is used to explain how personal preferences and expert assistance can shape a selection. For readers, the concrete takeaway is to share a budget, occasion and examples of wines they enjoy, then treat suggestions as guidance rather than rules.
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From Wine Class to Ordering Advice
The article says Bray made the comparison during a wine education class hosted by her at Meadowood Napa Valley in Napa, California. Veranda’s report develops the idea into advice for ordering wine at restaurants and selecting bottles for a collection. It uses art as a point of comparison because both fields involve choices shaped by individual taste, creative decisions and specialist knowledge.
That framing is an analogy, not a claim that wine and visual art are interchangeable. The article notes that “vintage” has different meanings in the two fields: for wine, it refers to the year the grapes were grown; in art, the report describes a category of works aged 20 to 99 years. The practical guidance is narrower than the comparison: describe what you like, state your budget and ask an expert for help if useful.
““That’s where art curators and sommeliers come in.””
— Elyse Lovenworth, Philadelphia-based lead sommelier for Sommsation, quoted by Veranda
Limits of the Art Comparison
The report offers professional perspectives and practical suggestions, but it does not present survey data or research showing how often this approach changes restaurant orders or improves customers’ experiences. It also does not establish that the art analogy is a standard industry method. The advice should be read as a way to make a conversation easier, not as a tested formula for selecting a bottle.
The source material gives no publication date, and it does not identify a particular restaurant, wine list or bottle as the focus of the advice. Nor does it provide evidence that buying wine will produce a financial return. The comparison concerns selection and appreciation; questions about storage, resale value and investment are outside the reported guidance.
Putting the Advice Into Practice
The report does not announce a follow-up event or planned change to restaurant wine service. For diners applying its advice, the next step is a straightforward conversation: give the sommelier a comfortable spending range, explain the occasion, and name a few familiar preferences, such as crisp, silky, lively or bold. A remembered bottle—or one they did not enjoy—can help make those preferences more concrete.
Customers can then consider the recommendations and choose for themselves. As the experts quoted in the report stress, the purpose of guidance is to help people feel more confident and find something suited to their own taste, not to replace personal judgment with an expert’s definition of the “best” wine.
Key Questions
What does it mean to order wine like you would choose art?
It means describing the style or feeling you want, setting a budget and asking for expert guidance if helpful. The report uses art as an analogy for personal taste; it does not say wine and art are the same kind of purchase.
What should I tell a sommelier?
Share your price range, the occasion and a few preferences. Everyday descriptions such as light and crisp, rich and silky, lively or bold can help communicate what you like.
Do I need wine-specific vocabulary to order well?
No. Bray’s advice, as reported by Veranda, is to use words you already know to describe texture, mood or personality. You can also mention bottles you have enjoyed or disliked.
Does the report say wine is a good investment?
No. It compares selecting wine with choosing art, but the source does not establish that bottles will increase in value or provide financial returns.
Is a sommelier’s recommendation the objectively best choice?
No. Lovenworth told Veranda that recommendations reflect an expert’s opinion and that taste is subjective. The customer’s own enjoyment remains the guide.
Source: veranda.com
