My wife is a sommelier. She's worked her entire adult life as a wine director for high-end restaurants. Thus when we go out to eat at a nice place, I get to talk to her only after she’s spent about 10 minutes in silence with her head buried in the list like a yeshiva student with the Talmud, scanning every line of Burgundy, every Napa Cab for the name of its producer, its vintage, and its price. It’s her professional curiosity. Finally she looks up and renders her commentary. "Good wine list," she might say. Or, "not much on here," even though it might be a wine book with 500 selections. I always marveled at her ability to criticize a wine list as someone might criticize a book. To me a wine list is just an inventory with prices, but to my wife, it signals key things about the restaurant that I would have never otherwise realized. It's like judging a person based on the way he treats his dog. In some ways, the wine list is the window to the restaurant's soul. And the better you can read that soul, the better experience you will have.

We all know food to some degree. We can look at a menu and instantly gauge how many dishes look exciting, whether the chef is creative or innovative, and whether or not the pricing seems fair. When it comes to wine, however, most of us are at a loss. No matter how much you know about wine it's unlikely that you'll be familiar with all the selections on a list or even half of them, much less be aware of the quality of a certain vintage or what the going retail price of a particular bottle is. Nagging questions begin to dog you as you prepare to throw down $30 to $50 for a bottle of wine. How was 2004 in Argentina? Is Chateau Blah de Blah a good producer? Is this a fair price for Scenic River Chardonnay? Unless you're in the business of buying or selling wine, as my wife is, you won't have a lot of this information at your fingertips. But, as I've learned over time, you don't have to know every wine to be able to make snap judgments about a list. There are other things to look for.

First and foremost when evaluating a list to is to determine whether or not it was made with dedication by someone who loves wine, or if it was written by a general-manager type who only gets around to buying wine after he's tallied all the server's time cards and put the chairs on the tables. Having a sense of this is important because if you can tell that the wine list is made with love you will feel more comfortable experimenting, leaving your comfort zone on both price and style. If you sense that the list is boilerplate, you're probably just better off getting something inexpensive or that you've had before. Or a cocktail.

How to tell if the list is made with love? Look first for diversity. The best wine directors have an ecumenical impulse. They want everyone to love wine as much as they do so they'll make sure to stock their list with lots of regions, styles, and price ranges — something for everyone. You should expect to see bottles of whites and red that range from the mid 20s to over 100. There might be expensive white Burgundies and California Chardonnays, but there should also be inexpensive Albarinos and New Zealand Sauvignon Blancs. There should be some wines you've heard of, but also choices that might be exotic and unfamiliar. If you see such diversity, you can feel confident that even taking a chance on something bizarre-sounding — like a Moschofilero from Greece or an Irouleguy rosé from France — will result in a good wine experience.

A classic indicator of a lousy list is when its packed with too many wines that you know from perusing grocery store aisles. While big-name brands may lend a comforting air of familiarity, their appearance suggests lazy wine buying. Names like Gallo, Penfolds, Rosemount, and Concha Y Toro are the Kraft, Oscar Mayer, General Foods, and Kelloggs of the wine world. Why go to a restaurant to order Pop Tarts? Restaurants have access to wines that hardly make it to retail shelves, meaning one reason to order wine in a restaurant is to expand your horizons. The big brands are sold and marketed by the biggest, most powerful distributors. Like the bills in Congress that are actually written by lobbyists, it's not uncommon for restaurant wine lists to be written by salesmen from these companies. In some cases, the distributors will even offer to buy fancy menu covers and print the lists for the restaurants. You can be assured that they don't have the best interests of wine drinkers at heart. Rather, they're simply looking to make placements and meet quotas. A restaurant that will delegate its wine program to the wine sellers is probably not worth going to for the food, either.

Another feature often indicative of good wine lists (though by no means essential) is the inclusion of bonus information to help you decide. With the vast number of wines in the world, a straight list — one that only prints the wines, vintages, and prices — can be overwhelming and inaccessible. I like to see a little guidance, a sort of teaching wine list. Once again, it's the sign of someone who's made the list deliberately, with thought and care.

Information can be a basic description of a certain region or grape, an explanation of why certain wines have been chosen, or brief anecdotes about certain producers. These can be sober and direct or creative and funny. An example of the latter is Peter Kasperski's lists for his Scottsdale, Arizona restaurant, Cowboy Ciao. Under the listing for the Champagne Pierre Peters NV Brut Blanc de Blancs, he writes, "fans of Krug and Salon drink these when they're slumming — same vineyard region, pennies on the dollar (or is it fractions on the franc? Iotas on the euro? Whatever, they represent a terrific value)." That's a good annotation on an excellent Champagne. It's candid information that could help anyone navigate Kasperski's otherwise huge, intimidating, and otherwise unruly list.

Or consider the wine list written by wine director Rajat Parr of Michael Mina's eponymous restaurant in San Francisco. Under the heading of red Burgundies from the village of Gevrey-Chambertin you find the following paragraph: "The historic town of Gevrey-Chambertin is known for producing the most powerful wines in Burgundy. Power, muscle, and rich, jammy fruit — tending to start compact and needing time to unfold broadly — characterize these wines. In recent years this commune has seen a number of excellent 'new' domaines. Some of these producers include Denis Mortet and Claude Dugat. While these young producers have taken a modern step in winemaking, the old-timers have also learned to keep pace. Producers like Domaine Armand Rousseau and Joseph Roty (making wine since 1710) recently have been producing some of the most interesting and long-lived wines from their prime vineyards." It's a mini primer on an important village in Burgundy. Even if you knew nothing about Burgundy before coming in, now you have some concrete knowledge of one of the most important villages in the region.

Paul Grieco's wine list at the now-defunct Insieme in Manhattan was chalk full of his rants and raves, personal jokes (Nine Reasons to drink Rosé wine) and lengthy, well-written disquisitions on various grapes and bottles. The list is mostly full of rather obscure European wines, many of which I've never heard of. Yet I'm willing to put myself in Grieco's hands — anyone who would take this much time to scrawl all over his list, to amuse and educate us, obviously loves his job.

I love what Nicole Burke has done with her list at San Francisco's Epic Roasthouse. Besides all the copious annotations, Burke has a section in the front called "Epic Prospects." Basically a recommendation of a few highlighted wines, Epic Prospects are presented rapid fire for quick and easy decision making. Zepaltas Syrah of the Santa Lucia Highlands' Rosella’s Vineayrd 2005 is presented only with the following teaser information — "Winemaker: Ryan Zepaltas; Day Job: Profesional Skateboarder; Key Element: Crafting bold and spicy California Syrah from the cool Sonoma Coast." A tidbit of interesting detail and a brief flavor sketch is all that's given on the page. But what's communicated is more profound: namely, that the person who wrote this list really wants you to try some of these wines.

Being able to assess a wine list as thoroughly as my wife can is an ability that only people who work in the wine industry typically have. Yet with a little practice we can all learn to make reasonable judgments. And being able to judge a wine list leads to insights not available through the food menu and the decor. A good wine list tells us how much the restaurant cares about our experience — if they want us to drink as well as we eat, if they consider good wine to be as important to a meal as a good dish, and if they're willing to pay someone to make sure these things happen. These are the elements of a restaurant's soul, and it's good to pay attention to them.

Jordan Mackay is the wine and spirits editor for San Francisco's metro magazine 7x7, as well as contributing writer to Wine and Spirits. He writes a weekly column on drinks for Chow and is a frequent contributor to both Decanter and the Modern Luxury suite of magazines. He has written for Gourmet, Food and Wine, the Los Angeles Times, New York Times, and Wine Enthusiast. His first book, Passion for Pinot, will be available in March 2009. He lives in San Francisco.

Wine bottles photo from matt.ohara via Flickr (Creative Commons), wine list photo from iwona_kellie via Flickr (Creative Commons), "Planet of the Grapes" photograph from Getty Images, "Bottle" photograph from istockphoto.com.