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Why can't North American restaurants serve red wine properly?

Why can't North American restaurants serve red wine properly?

Old Jun 6, 2016, 4:05 pm
  #16  
 
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This is why I like living in Philly, so many great BYOB restaurants.
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Old Jun 7, 2016, 9:21 pm
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Originally Posted by VivoPerLei

Also had the deliberate substitution of a very expensive bottle for what I really ordered.
So were you happy or unhappy to end up with the more expensive wine?

I read somewhere that most people serve white wine too cold and red wine to warm. Makes sense since a lot of folks keep their whites in the fridge or on ice, and their reds on the shelf or in the closet.

Last edited by iluv2fly; Jun 7, 2016 at 11:22 pm Reason: merge
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Old Jun 8, 2016, 12:57 am
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Originally Posted by broadwayblue
So were you happy or unhappy to end up with the more expensive wine?
I wouldn't have known the difference at the time. Years ago, just out of college, out with a couple of friends and ordered one of the cheaper wines. Didn't know enough to look at the bottle. End of the night, the check arrives and we notice they stuck us with a $150 charge for the wine. After much arguing back and forth, they finally remove the charge. Maybe they thought we'd simply be intimidated and just pay. Happens often to unsuspecting people who buy drinks for girls in dodgy bars, but that's another story...

On a more recent note, last year I was in Greece and had an outstanding pinot noir in a wine bar. Told the sommelier that I wanted to buy a bottle to take back. Got it home and after much fanfare, opened it and immediately noticed something wrong. Couldn't quite identify what was off, but luckily I had taken a picture of the first bottle in the bar, and after comparing the two I spotted the difference - they had given me a different vintage. WineSearcher then confirmed for me that, comparatively, it was a lesser vintage, and cheaper. Dang it
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Old Jun 8, 2016, 11:47 am
  #19  
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Originally Posted by broadwayblue
I read somewhere that most people serve white wine too cold and red wine to warm.
I suspect most people serve their wine at the temperature at which they most like to experience it.

I'm one who likes red wine with many fish dishes, served at 60F-65F, and who likes most white wine chilled near to freezing. If you don't like it that cold, no one's forcing you to drink it like that.
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Old Jun 9, 2016, 3:16 am
  #20  
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Assuming a restaurant doesn't have a cellar, then inevitably wine will not be stored at the proper temperature - and this is a significant issue with the slower moving, more expensive wines on the list.

Whether or not a restaurant has a cellar, they also need to ensure the wine is served at the correct temperature. This is relatively easy with white - you just put what you expect to serve that night in the fridge - and it will only not work out if you have a run on one particular wine, but ice buckets will do the trick and, assuming your staff are knowledgeable, can be done behind the scenes easily enough.

The problem comes with reds - they are not appropriate for a fridge as then they'd be too cold. But they will need to be chilled to around 15 degrees, so either you need a cool storage space (perhaps where the fruit and veg are kept) or some other technique to get them to the correct temperature, absent other specific wine refrigeration. And then you have a similar problem as with the whites - what happens if there's a run on an unusual wine? It's even more difficult to get a red to proper temperature quickly.
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Old Jun 11, 2016, 8:34 pm
  #21  
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Originally Posted by GRALISTAIR
not good -that is fraud
Originally Posted by VivoPerLei
Fraud or not, it would appear that these bait and switch maneuvers are somewhat common according to how many people post about them. I suspect the restaurants can always say it was an honest mistake. I would think getting people to pay would be the hard part
I recall a slick attempt at that at a decent DC area restaurant a few years ago, where they were out of the wine we requested, and the sommelier said, "Let me bring you something very similar."

Well, price wasn't apparently part of the similarity as it was 3x or 4x as much. My chef friend who was dining with us about blew a gasket over the switcheroo.
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Old Jun 12, 2016, 10:32 pm
  #22  
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Originally Posted by exerda
I recall a slick attempt at that at a decent DC area restaurant a few years ago, where they were out of the wine we requested, and the sommelier said, "Let me bring you something very similar."

Well, price wasn't apparently part of the similarity as it was 3x or 4x as much. My chef friend who was dining with us about blew a gasket over the switcheroo.
I might have said to the Som, "you can substitute anything you think would be better at the same or lower price"
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Old Jun 13, 2016, 11:57 am
  #23  
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Originally Posted by exerda
I recall a slick attempt at that at a decent DC area restaurant a few years ago, where they were out of the wine we requested, and the sommelier said, "Let me bring you something very similar."

Well, price wasn't apparently part of the similarity as it was 3x or 4x as much. My chef friend who was dining with us about blew a gasket over the switcheroo.
Originally Posted by lhgreengrd1
I might have said to the Som, "you can substitute anything you think would be better at the same or lower price"
Another option would be to say "can you bring back the wine list so we can discuss some options?"

In terms of too-warm reds. I have no problem with saying "this is a little warm, could you bring an ice bucket and I'll give it a quick cool down."
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Old Jun 13, 2016, 1:51 pm
  #24  
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Originally Posted by GRALISTAIR
That is why I like to see the bottle on the table - not just a glass delivered.
And even then ...
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2016...d-trying-to-pa
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