What is the procedure?

Martron

I had an argument with afriend not so long ago.

abd i was wondering if soeone here could help.


we went to a restruant. and ordered the house white. neither one of us or our gf are wine buffs .

anyway the house bottle arrived.....a nd my friend held up his glass to taste it. took one sip and said " jaysus thats awful"

i tried it to see what the fuss was all about.... it was grand.

anyway he requested that it should e sent back and for the next cheapest sweeter wine come out. the waiter did this and open another bottle..... my friend tasted it and said thats ok.... i suppose and then ordered a 7up with it to ake a spritzer....


anyway my beef was that jhe should not be ordering the wine if he has not got a clue whether he like chardonnay etc etc etc...and i really did not think that restruants will keep opening bottles until you find a one you like


i was under the impression you could only send wine back if it was corked, nto that he would have known what that was either.... quite frankly i was embarrassed.

anyway is he within wine tasting procedure or is it frowned upon send/ing back perfectly good wine just because he does not like the taste of it?

amcalester

I used to work in a Restaurant where wine was a big deal so had to deal with people thinking they were wine buffs. The only time I ever had someone send a bottle back was this 1 time when the person sending the wine back wasn't the person paying the bill.

If you order a bottle of wine and dont like it then tough, its the same as any purchase, however if its corked then of course send it back.

Your friend sounds like an ass.

Mr Magnolia

If he didn't like it he didn't like it. As it was the house white the restaurant would have served the rest of the bottle to people asking for 'a glass of the house white'. The restuarant could have charged him for it and he could then of course brought it home, sounds like they were decent enough.

Only if it's corked or way off temperature should the restaurant replace it at thier expense afaik.

Martron

thats what i was thinking. i was quite embarrased . he knew nothing about the wine and was not sure if he liked it..... he was the pickiest about the wine as i will drink more or less any white wine.... so thats why he had the choice but to top it off he ordered 7 up to mix it in.


so he was essentially being an ass...


is it rare that you get corked bottles now?

Hammiepeters

Dont take him out again if I were you. Mixing a sweet wine with 7up to make a spritzer! Ok! Usually a cheap dry with sparkling water will make a drink of sorts but sweet with 7up, I dunno. Sending back a wine you ordered because you dont like it is unreasonable unless the tasting note or description on the list is totally at odds with the wine. Re corked wines. Yes very common. Having spent several years in the Australian wine industry, I would put it at about 8-10% over there. Whenever i was showing wines to a client, i would bring two bottles just in case one was corked. Often of the six or so samples I would open, I would have to open two bottles of one. Yet i rarely had corked wine returned to me for credit. That meant that most folk drank the wine and didn't pick up the fault. Often that meant they would not buy it again which was a problem. Screw caps have been a salvation IMHO. Sometimes the taint is only slight, but once you recognise it,any taint is very offputting. Returning wine for cork taint in Ireland can be such a pain. Sometimes shop staff start examining corks, looking in the bottle, nobody else complains about it, blah blah.

Hammiepeters

Oh and Mart.Ever heard the saying '' a little knowledge, dangerous thing''. Thats your date I'm afraid. Most of us who spent about 10 yrs selling the stuff and drinking it every day would only profess to knowing a very small ammount about it, because we come up against a few who do know a lot. Yet at wine shows, etc there was no limit to the ammount of guys who would come up to you and tell you everything when it was apparent immediately that they knew absolutely nothing. Might sound snobbish but a very boring fact I can assure you.

Martron

you hit the nail on the head. i would claim absolutely nothing about wine but i know enough of what type i may like..... or at least going by the description pf the wine on the menu.


house white generally does me unless i spot a wine that i have had before and like.....


this lad was only drinking wine because the rest of us were and tok it upon himself to oreder it because he was the pickiest.

i will know for the next time anyway.

shanel23

You're paying the bill !

however if you choose a wine that you don't like but is not corked .. well its tough ..thats your fault.. if it ok and you just don't likr because of flavour or something else ... well tough to you in my opinion . if the wine is good you just get in with it and order a different one next time !

The only time to reject a wine is if its corked - not because you don't likr it in my opinion !

Martron

i would have drank it. he insisted on sending it back.....


it wont happen again... he can order beer

Mr.David

Ya, this always annoys me. When the waiter offers you a taste, he is not asking if you like the wine. The purpose is to make sure its not corked. You either say its fine or its corked.