Liquid Assests – The Ritual of Ordering Wine
Editor’s Note: Guest Columnist Greg Fowlkes explores the process and ritual of ordering wine in restaurants. In his previous columns, Greg wrote about The Five Rules of Wine Lists, What Makes A good Wine List, and Three Stand Out Madison Wine Lists.
The Ritual
So you’ve ordered a bottle of wine in a restaurant. What happens next? What should you do? What should the server do? Not sure? Read this.
The Presentation
The first step when the server comes back with the bottle is the presentation. The bottle should be held so that you can verify that the wine is the one you ordered. This can sometimes be a challenge in a darkened restaurant, particularly if the label is artistically hard to read. But take a moment to be sure. Most of the time this isn’t a problem as the wine is indeed what you ordered, but mistakes can happen, particularly if there are several different wines from the same producer, You might happen to end up with a Cabernet Franc instead of a Grenache as heppened to me recently. If it’s not what you asked for, say so, politely, but firmly. “No, I wanted the Grenache.” It should not be a big deal to get the correct wine. If it is the right wine, tell the server so. “Yes, that’s it.”
The Opening
The next step is for the server to open the bottle. Note, that in some establishments the wine will already have been opened by the bartender. This really is a no-no unless there is a wide screen TV above the bar showing a sporting event. There are several good reasons for this. The main one is not because an empty bottle of Chateau Efete Rothsbarger ’45 has been fill with Le Swill 2008. I trust most restaurantuers to be reasonably honest. The real reasons are to avoid mistakes as described above where the bottle is the wrong wine, and so you can judge the condition of the cork.
The server shoud with a firm and practiced hand produce a cork screw had open the bottle with a minimum of fuss. Unfortunately, this is too often not the case except in the very best of restaurants. It takes a good corkscrew and some practice, but it isn’t that hard to open a bottle of wine. Too often, however, the corkscrew is poorly designed and this is only the second bottle the server has ever opened. Servers! Find a cork screw that works for you and guard it with your life. Owners! Train you staff. If this means recorking a bunch of empties for them to practice on, it will be well worth it.
I try not to intervene if the server struggles a bit. Even if the temptation to do it myself is strong I try to resist the impulse. They will only learn by repetition. Also, I avoid the embarassment of fumbling the job myself.
The cork should come out whole and in good condition. If it is crumbly, the bottle may be bad and should be sent back. If by some chance the cork gets pushed into the bottle, it should also be replaced with another. These are points on which to be firm.
To Smell or Not to Smell?
Traditionally the cork should be presented to the person who ordered the wine. I’ve read learned discussions on whether you should bring the damp end of the cork to your nose or smell or leave it lie on the table. Experts disagree. I personally think smelling the wine is more effective. I usually pick the cork up, examine the end and lay it back on the table. This seems to satisfy everybody. Of course, with the move to plastic corks and screw tops this may be an issue of the past.
The Tasting
The server should then pour a small amount of wine in a glass and present it to the person who ordered the wine. Note, this is not automatically the eldest male at the table. It is the person who actually said, “We’ll have a bottle of the Chateau Thames Enbankment.” This is not a matter of Feminism, it is a matter of proper form. In the case of a couple where both were involved in the wine decision, if would not be inappropriate if a taste would be poured in both glasses. However, failure to do so is not a reason to complain.
There should be enough wine to swirl around a bit to release the aroma. Too many servers pour just the smallest drop. It should be almost an ounce. After swirling, stick your nose in the glass and inhale. I know it sounds gross, but it’s expected. If nothing seems amiss, take a mouthful and swish it around. If the wine seems sound with no off flavors, announce your approval to the server, “It’s fine.”
But What If It’s Not?
The sad fact is that wine occaisionally goes bad. Most restaurant wine does not go bad with age because it hasn’t sat around that long. The most common defect is a wine being “corked.” This is an off smell that may be due to a bad cork, but it may alsom be a chemical contamination from a compound called TCA. “Corked” wines have kind of a wet cardboard smell to them. It is harmless but unpleasant. The wine should be sent back. In cases where the smell is barely discernable, I have accepted the wine to avoid a scene, but I would not do so if the wine was expensive. It should be your decision, not the server’s, though you may allow them to sniff the wine to confirm your diagnosis. The wine should be replaced free of charge.
Sometimes you will detect a smell like bleach. This is not due to the wine, but to glassware that has been rinsed properly after washing. Ask for another glass.
A wine should not be sent back just because you don’t like it. You made the selection, you should live with it. Just don’t order it again. After all, you wouldn’t send back a steak that you had ordered if you decided it didn’t taste like chicken.
The Pour
Once the wine has been approved, the server should proceed to fill the glasses around the table. By tradition, the glass of the person who ordered the wine is filled last. Each glass should be filled roughly a third full. This allows the wine to breathe and promotes the “nose”, the aroma of the wine. Of course, this works best when the wine glass is the proper size. Fortunately, most fine dining restaurants have upgraded their glassware to something appropriate, but occaisionally you do run into places that serve their wine in little 4 oz. glasses left over from the 50′s. In certain bistros, mom and pop Italian restaurants, and Greek Tavernas wine is served in tumblers. It’s part of the rustic charm. In that case fill the glass to the rim.
Enjoy
Now comes the good part. Sip the wine and savor. But don’t forget to thank your server. Being polite is just good manners. Salute!
What a helpful post! Especially for those who are new to wine!
It bears repeating that you are testing the wine to make sure it has not gone bad, not whether you like the initial taste. Also , more commonly in my experience, the restaurant will occasionally substitute a different year if the listed wine ordered is no longer available. Even very nice restaurants sometime have trouble with making sure the waiter can update you on any changes. I suspect that most restaurants have printed formal winelists that they don’t want to reprint every time they run out of a wine and little stickers covering no longer available selections is pretty tacky. My understanding is when presented with the cork you get the most information by holding the cork in your forward-facing (fist bump ready) fist and scratching the wet end of the cork to assess if the cork is dry or crumbly.
Anne, I’m glad you found the article helpful.
Al raises some good points. Wine should only be rejected if it has gone bad. You might not like a wine because it is thin, rough, too tannic, the wrong color or too sweet, but those are not reasons to send the wine back, just reasons not to order it again. The most common wine flaw is when a wine is corked, that is it has a funky moldy smell like old damp newspapers that have been sitting in an attic too long. Wine that has been exposed to excessive heat may become “cooked” which is harder to describe, but in extreme cases the wine no longer tastes like wine (I remember one bottle that tasted like not very good beer). Either of these is a reason to send the bottle back.
It is perfectly normal for a restaurant to stock the most recent vintage of a wine when they have run out of the previous year. There is nothing underhanded about this except for the most expensive wines as most wineries that produce in volume try for consistency from year to year, both in taste and cost. Ideally, the wine list should be changed to reflect this but that doesn’t always happen in a timely manner. Restaurants do run out of wines, particularly more expensive ones that they may only have ordered a case or two of. However, for older or more expensive wines it is not at all unusual for different years to vary considerably it both quality and price. For example, a ’96 Napa Cabernet might be 20% more than a ’99 from the same vineyard. It is perfectly acceptable for the server to suggest a substitution, but this should be done with an unopened bottle and with the understanding that you can reject it and order a different wine.
Scratching the cork to see if it is crumbly or powdery makes as much sense as anything. There are a lot of opinions on what to do with the cork. What you are really trying to determine is whether the cork was doing the it’s job, that is protecting the wine from the air.