San Francisco'S Masa’s RESTAURANT: Awards & Accolades

Wine Business Monthly - May 2004

At Masa's in San Francisco, sommelier Alan Murray's comments mirror Wine & Spirits' restaurant poll. Murray's list of 1,000 SKUs is fairly consistently divided 70 percent old world, 30 percent new world. He said that his customers are willing to try new wines. They still move to the well-recognized brand as a reliable or safe option, but Murray said, "There is always some discovery. And people tend to trust the sommelier."

Murray now blind tastes all wines when making decisions for his list, and in the two years he has headed the wine program at Masa's (previously, he worked at Rubicon), he has broadened the wine list, adding more Italian and Australian wines.