Tasting Wine

The friendliest place on the web for anyone that enjoys cooking.
If you have answers, please help by responding to the unanswered posts.

GB

Chief Eating Officer
Joined
Jul 14, 2004
Messages
25,510
Location
USA,Massachusetts
A post on another thread made me remember this situation that was very embarrassing to my family a number of years ago. We went out to dinner with some friends (I was just a kid at the time). One of the people we went out with was a self proclaimed wine expert so when it came time to order the wine he took it upon himself to do the honors. That was fine with everyone and we were looking forward to what he would pick. He chose a bottle (I have no idea what kind it was. I was too young to care) and the waiter brought it over and poured a little into his glass to taste. He took a sip and said it was awful and sent it back and then picked another wine. The waiter brought another bottle over and poured a taste. The guy did the same thing. Said it was disgusting and sent it back just to pick another new bottle.

I was young and did not know any better, but my parents was amazingly embarrassed. They told me after we left that the ONLY reason you send a wine back is if it has gone bad (IE: turned to vinegar). Just because you don't like the wine is no reason to send it back. I learned a great lesson that day. I just hope the guy we went to dinner with eventually learned the same lesson. I do not think we ever went out with them to a restaurant that served wine again :LOL:
 
I totally agree, you don't order the oysters on a half shell and send them back because you wanted to taste them and then figure out you don't like them, I hate it when people send back wine just because they didn't know what top order and wanted to "taste it" These people must realize you don't send back wine unless like GB said, it is vinigary or flawed in some other way. If these people want to sample wine, they need to do it on their own time.
 
I'm no wine expert at all but do enjoy several varieties. We went out with with some very close friends of ours a few summers ago and I decided to try a glass of red wine. Needless to say it was awful but I didn't say anything and gently pushed the glass away from me and when the waitress returned I polietly asked if I could have a glass of ....(don't remember). She questioned if something was wrong with the wine and I polietly told her I did not like the flavor and she removed it from the table and when the bill was presented we found she did not charge me for it. I didn't expect her to do this. I didn't like the wine it wasn't her or the resturants fault. It just didn't agree with my taste buds.
I agree that one should not send something back that they do not like. Granted the excludes meat that isn't cooked properly.
 
Last edited:
I agree with GB's parents with one exception. If you go to a restaurant and ask the wine steward or waiter to recommend a bottle and it's not as they represented it, I'd refuse it.
 
There really are a few schools of though on this issue.

One is that you're paying good money for wine, and you should have the right to send it back. However, I do think that you do owe the restaurant at least a small amount of research in picking out a wine.

If nothing else, ASK YOUR SERVER. They may not be a sommilier, but they should at least have some basic suggestions. If you can point them in the direction you want to go (red, white, sweet, dry, etc..) so much the better!

There's nothing wrong with telling them that you'd like a wine, but don't know what to get - odds are you'll get a nice middle of the road wine that will play nice with what you're planning on ordering. Remember, they WANT you to be happy.

If you pick it by yourself, and you just don't like it - I don't think you should send it back.

If it's bad, it's bad, and it should go back. No question.

John
 
Andy M. said:
I agree with GB's parents with one exception. If you go to a restaurant and ask the wine steward or waiter to recommend a bottle and it's not as they represented it, I'd refuse it.

Absolutely! Good Call Andy!

In nicer establishments, I'd even hazard a guess that some of them would want you to send it back if you weren't happy with their selection.

John
 
I can see sending it back if you asked for advice and was mislead, but not if you pick it yourself and just don't like it. To me it would be the same as ordering a meal, say Chicken Kiev, and sending it back once you taste it because you don't like ham.
 
LOL If I were a waiter of cook then I would have my friends come in and order and send back EVERYTHING :LOL:
 
when i was in my early 20's, i remember thinking it was silly to taste wine being served in a restaurant. i wouldn't have known good wine from bad, so why bother.
but then it just seemed like proper protocol, so whenever i was on a date, i obliged if for nothing else to impress my date a little. i still thought it a waste of time.
but on a trip to california, i remember talking to a friendly waiter about wines, and mentioned that i don't bother to taste wine first, never having been disappointed. he said that over the years, he has served tens of thousands of bottles, and every so often you get a bad one, so if you're gonna lay out the dough, you should always taste wine before it's served because you might just be one of the lucky few to get a skunked bottle.

so ever since then, i always taste the wine, to be sure it's ok. in fact, unless i'm in a low budget kinda place, i question it if a waiter doesn't offer a taste, or worse, brings an already opened bottle to the table.
 
"if you don't like it"..... many meanings. It' s possible it is turning vinegar (!!) and you have all the rights to send it back. May be it is flavoring of cork, and you have all the rights to send it back. But may be too that you have ordered a particular bottle, and that bottle has not the right taste. A bad year, or a bad conservation....many reasons. If it is a common wine, I think you can only tell it gently, and HOPE they change (generally they do so). But, if the bottle is a very special one, 60-80-100 euro, f.i. you have the same rights. Of course, here it's necessary you are effectively a good expert of wines.....And much depends by the restaurant level.
I remembere a girfriend of mine, absolutely ignorant about wines. Her boyfriend used to leave her the job to taste wine, for joke. She had no experience at all, so decided to always have this behaviour:
She rounded the wine in the glass, looked at it against light, tasted just a bit of wine, glanced at it with a very suspicious face, and always was saying the same words: "Oh...well...I was sure it was...softer, but...well...ok!"
 
The reason you test a glass is to make sure it's not "corked." Some corks will turn a bottle because of trichloroanisole contamination. You can smell it. It's kind of musty and off smelling without the normal fruit smells you would experience.

If a bottle is light struck, sulphidic, over-sulphured (a preservative that can be overused), acetic, oxidized (madeurised) or fermented past the point of being good you would also be able to note this with the taste and/or smell as well. If it is sulphidic you can actually decant, drop a clean/sanitized copper coin in and wait. It will react with the sulphide and eventually eliminate the rotten egg smell you'll get from sulphidic wines.

It's *extremely* bad form to send it back just because you don't *like* the taste. There should be a valid reason, and not everybody is able to detect the difference. I rarely can detect a bad bottle.
 
A corked wine (or another obvious flaw/defect) is the only reason I would ever consider sending back a wine. Of course, flavour wise, I don't recall ever meeting a wine I really didn't care for. :angel:

I'm actually usually really good at picking out wines that are corked (or in the process of turning corked). I bought a cheap batch of corks for some homemade wine a while back, and ended up getting a LOT of practice at recognizing the various stages or 'corked' wine. The blue cheese looking mold that can form on the end of the cork is usually, but not always, another good sign that something may be amiss.

John
 
I've met several wines I don't care for. I can't *stand* sweet wines. The drier the better, afaiac, much like I prefer bitter beers. If I want grape juice, I'll buy Welch's. ;)
 
phinz...:bangin:

every wine, and every beer has it's place, and time.

if you've ever been out backpacking, and all you have left (or find :sick: ) is skunky beer, and you're miles from civilization, you will savor every rotten drop.

i used to dislike sweet red wines, until i had a really good homemade sweet red, served in large italian ceramic water pitchers at a local restaurant. i guess i had such a good time there that it changed my perception.
it was a little mom and pop place that never seemed to be busy. the owners were always there, sitting at a table near the front. they always recommended one of the specials, which were always fantastic. veal chops valdostana, zuppa di pesce, calamari affogati over squid ink pasta, grilled swordfish with a garlic lemon sauce, osso bucco... so many great ones.
but the wine, served in those really cool painted pitchers seemed to fit every dish, as it was part of the whole experience.
we'd kill a pitcher, sometimes two :dizzy: , and finish everything off with an espresso, and a delicate sweet dessert.

so now, if i'm in the mood for one, or end up with a sweet homemade red from a neighbor, i decant it into a ceramic pitcher and enjoy.
 
I have a bottle of homemade muscadine wine in the fridge. It's been there for over a year, and will probably be there for several more.:sick:
 
phinz said:
I've met several wines I don't care for. I can't *stand* sweet wines. The drier the better, afaiac, much like I prefer bitter beers. If I want grape juice, I'll buy Welch's. ;)

AMEN phinz!
 
GB said:
He took a sip and said it was awful and sent it back and then picked another wine. The waiter brought another bottle over and poured a taste. The guy did the same thing. Said it was disgusting and sent it back just to pick another new bottle.

I would truly be afraid of the additives that ended up in his meal that night. I worked with a guy that sent everything back every time (and always rudely). When I had the misfortune of eating with him, I would try to alert the waiter before we ordered and make sure he got a big tip.
 
I'm not expert yet, though i hope to be one day, but If you are very familiar with the wine produced by a certain grape, and somthing is definitely off, is it appropriate to send it back? It's not really the restaurants fault, but should you have to drink a wine that tastes like a Riesling ( generally sweeter) when you order a Chablis ( generally dryer)?
 
Back
Top Bottom