What's Your Biggest Pet Peeve About Drinking Wine In Restaurants?
Hey, I may work restaurants, and because of that I also eat out far more often than the average citizen; and so I have my own pet peeves. My biggest? When you go to a hoity-toity dive and are presented a big book full of the "hottest" names in winemaking, many of which you never heard of. That in itself doesn't bug me (I love hot, new wines); but what does bug me is wine lists that do not give you a hint in the way of descriptions as to what the wines taste like, what they're all about, or why they're so cool. Why am I always forced to refer to servers (with their shaky knowledge), sommeliers (whom I am deathly afraid will try to "sell" me) or condescending managers (I naturally look like an idiot) for information?
Anyway, that's mine. What's yours?
Views: 104
Replies to This Discussion
-
Permalink Reply by Randy Caparoso on -
Hey, no fair, Marlene... this is about the customers, not you ex-sommelieresses (okay... sommelieres). Of course, your stories are legit; but now that you're a civilian, what's turning you off?
-
Permalink Reply by Abdi Humphries on -
One to add is restaurants that have sold their soul to the "by-the-glass" demon. These restaurants have interesting wines list for full bottles, with alternative varietal selections and unique, botique wineries represented. By the glass however, the diner can choose from Beringer, R Mondavi, a white zin from Sutter, and a sparkling by Cooks (i'm exagerating here). Randy, as well as crafting Roy's own wines to match the hawaiian fusion cuisine, also had a great extensive by-the-glass list which allowed for more experimentation.
-
Permalink Reply by Randy Caparoso on
-
Thanks, buddy, now I'm blushing... but god, I hate "ordinary" glass programs... I guess the only way that will change is if consumers vote with their feet... walk out, and go to the restaurants that offer decently interesting wines by the glass...
-
Permalink Reply by Hamish Wakes-Miller on -
Randy
There seems to be lots of pent up peeving from some of these comments. Cool that stress!
My peeve or concern is the assumption or presumption of knowledge. The weird thing about wine is that everyone starts from a different place and everyone has a different level of passion. Some people need to tell everyone how grand and grown up they are whilst others are just cool to get on with enjoying their own experience of the wine world. At the end of the day wine is fun.
Sometimes you don't need to know how to say or even know the terroir of Schlossbockelheimer Kupfergrube Trockenbeerenauslese in order to enjoy the wine.
To answer your original question I think the skill of a sommelier or restaurant owner is to have a concise wine list with wines that link and complement the food being served.
A big chunky list is just an ego boost for the restaurant to say how much money we have thrown at the wine cellar. A fun pioneering list breaking the mold and not taking itself to seriously would have my vote. Surely a sommelier should explore new tastes and flavours and share that knowledge (without patronising) the customers.
Cheers
Hamish
-
Permalink Reply by Randy Caparoso on
-
Imagine that... a wine list that is actually chosen to compliment the cuisine... you know how rare that is, Hamish? All these big award winning wine lists look exactly alike because there always seems to be a "law" somewhere out there that an "important" restaurant must carry this big-name wine and that big-name wine, no matter what type of cuisine they serve. I have nothing against great wines, but greatness doesn't necessarily mean "great food match."
Cut to the chase: I'm in 100% agreeement with you, Hamish. Bigger is not better, and better has everything to do with food, not ego. Amen!
-
Permalink Reply by Blake Eliasson on -
Vintage is one of mine: if the date is included on the wine list it should match the bottle served.
-
Permalink Reply by Jennifer on -
I hate it when they fill your glass too full, so you can't properly swirl and enjoy holding the glass. I understand why restaurants do this when they're selling wine by the glass, but... I wish more restaurants offered half bottles and carafes. I hate it when restaurants serve red wine too warm. Even restaurants where you'd expect better do this. Yuck.
-
Permalink Reply by Randy Caparoso on
-
Amen... those are close to the top of my list, too!
-
Permalink Reply by eljefe on -
yeah, red too warm I think is worse than white too cold... my peeve is walking into restaurants that have Nothing Interesting on their wine lists. The kind of list where it is obvious that they are being fed directly by a very large distributor that shall remain nameless....
-
Permalink Reply by Randy Caparoso on
-
Unfortunately, some of my best friends have always been distributors. God bless 'em, but you're entirely correct: they've traditionally exercised way too much influence and say on what the consumer actually drinks. Suffice to say, my distributor friends always knew where they stood with me: it's the wine, stupid. But the only way this distributor stranglehold will ever change in 99% of other restaurants is if consumers stand up and rebel. Say it like it is: no to distributor-made lists!
-
Permalink Reply by tom merle on -
Trying to augment the lost income on the food items by jacking up the prices of vino--a self defeating tactic. And related to this, ignoring the example of their European counterparts by failing to offer a vin ordinaire/vin de table i.e., decent plonk by the carafe.
-
Permalink Reply by Randy Caparoso on
-
You know, Tom, as a restaurant insider I can say that the big issue for operatiors is that all goods (food, wine, beer, liquor, etc.) are sold at over three times markup simply because, generally speaking, you need that much more margin than a retail store to make a profit (labor and all the niceties, like flowers and crystal wine glasses, necessitating the revenue).
That said, you are absolutely correct: at some point, this idea of marking wine at least three times has got to stop. Frankly, restaurants need to go back to the drawing board and figure it out. Within the industry, we are talking about it; and I do know of some restaurants who are having more success selling wine for closer to retail prices (something that wasn't possible ten, twenty years ago simply because there weren't enough wine drinkers to push sales up to sufficient levels where cash flow becomes more important than margin or cost-of-goods).
Personally, I think consumers will see the changes over the next few years, and it will be driven by increased enthusiasm for wine. The trick, of course, will be for restaurants not to kill that enthusiasm by being too slow on the uptake, or too stubborn to change their pricing formulas.
© 2012 Created by Cornelius Geary.
