Archive for the 'Sommeliers' Category

What should a restaurant do when its wine list is wrong? It takes work to keep a wine list completely up to date. The more wines on the list, the more work it is. But when a restaurant runs out of a listed wine, or when a new vintage arrives to replace the listed one, the restaurant needs to handle it promptly. It’s not that difficult, really.

Even a list bound in leather can be updated in a few minutes with a quick edit in Word and a swift printout from the HP whatever in the manager’s office. Knowing how easy it is to keep a list up to date makes it all the more frustrating for a customer when a restaurant blows something this simple.

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Has the tide finally turned on sending bottles back? Is it just me, or have sommeliers and waiters gotten better with this?

I dislike having to do it, but when I smell the musty, newspapers-in-the-damp-basement aroma of trichloroanisole in a wine, I still have to do it. I tell the waiter I think the wine is corky, she smells it and then there’s a moment when I don’t know if she’s going to believe me.

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