Wine by the Bottle or by the Glass?
 

Inspired by PVDProf's post on the sweet wines thread, I started to wonder how many of us order wine by the glass vs. by the bottle when dining out?

Mrs BV and I don't eat out frequently, and it's usually just the two of us. Somehow, a bottle of wine is never the right amount. We never disagree on what to order, it's just the amount - I'd like to find wine that comes in 1.5 bottle sizes on restaurant menus.

Funny enough, we don't have that problem at lunch. A half bottle is almost always just the right size, although that limits selection quite a bit.

We always order by the glass because a single wine rarely pairs well with every course on the table.

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Im not a fan of by the glass unless I know exactly how the wine service works...

really depends on where i'm going, what courses i'm having, the reputation of the restaurant, stuff like that.

A nice surprise recently was the Cheese Shop in Williamsburg, VA. Great sandwiches--shrimp salad on incredible rolls, and classic tiny ham biscuits. But a good day became a great one while choosing among the wine offerings. Half bottles of Sancerre and Chablis. And Champagne. Decisions, decisions!!

Wine by the glass is fine if they have to open a new bottle. :p Or if the place is known for interesting selections. I wish there were more half-bottles on menus.

half-bottles, as noted above, are much less common that most people thing... I always tell winemakers that they need to tell their commercial/marketing folks that more of these small bottles are needed... the market for them it much larger than most think !!!

the glass is really good.

Bottle always. Half-bottles, even better, especially if I'm dining by myself.

A few yrs back, I had ordered by the glass and the house wine was a Merlot. When the glass was served to me, I took a few sips of it and it was obviously not a Merlot (it tasted more like an old Shiraz that was quickly fading). I complained to the waiter and he took it back, took it off my bill and quickly offered me a bottle of something at the same price for a glass. A few days later the waiter called to apologize and told me that when they serve wine by the glass, they usually tell the bartender "red wine" or "white wine". THAT was how they served wine by the glass! It said Merlot and Chardonnay on the menu, whatever was served was up to the restaurant! I was speechless.

After this experience, I have ceased ordering wine by the glass.

I have also been very outspoken about wine pouring and how the etiquette of pouring to the customer and having them OK it, etc. has really faded, even at very formal restaurants. This is one aspect I wish the restaurant industry would take measures to preserve. Wine should not just be a compliment to a meal IMO.

I always order by the glass because my better half doesn't really drink.

It's annoying because wine by the glass has usually been open for a while and is noticeably oxidized frequently. The exception is at a restaurant that takes care of its wine and has invested in the special wine fridges that add inert gas to the bottle as it's emptied. Also, wine by the glass is usually more expensive per unit volume than wine by the bottle.

I had a half bottle the other day; a friend's mom was visiting from Spain and she and I were the only winos at the table. It was a nice amount: about 1.5 glasses each.

It's nearly always by the glass for me, purely because I don't really know many wine drinkers.

If I am out with a wine drinker though, it's a bottle (unless we can't agree on which one to order!).

If I am ordering a wine by the glass (as I did on Saturday at lunch) I am far more likely to order something sparkling, like a Prosecco, than a still wine - it is much harder to try and fob off a long-ago opened bubbly than it is still wine.

If I'm with a large party, I will order a bottle of a wine we can all agree on. Otherwise, I will order by the glass, but only if I can specify a particular vineyard.

here in usa, wine by the glass places have very fancy equipment to keep the 60 or 90 different bottles they have open fresh. too bad it does not work. if one strays from a generic merlot, or chard, the wine is usually very tired.

i have not found that to be the case in france or italy. no fancy equipment, and less than a dozen bottles open. sometimes only 3 or 4. when one bottle dies, another of different flavor is open. in most, one can even choose what will be opened next.

Next time you order a glass of wine, ask the server to open a new bottle. Some bottles may have been open for a while, and you know what that means. :p

I've never personally bought wine by bottle. Not much of a wine drinker so 2-3 glasses max suffice for me.

Great thought about sparkling wines.

With wine by the glass I've always tried to consider day of week, time of day, and quantity of wines available in trying to choose something that hasn't been open too long. Seems like a lot to go through to make sure you are getting something fresh, but I will definitely add the sparkling idea to ease my complicated formula.

I'm fortunate in that I have several wine-drinking friends who like being adventurous with wine, so we always get a bottle when we dine together.

When I'm alone, I rarely drink and if I do it'll be by the glass.

By myself - by the glass.

With my wife - by the bottle unless we're positive we're only having one glass each or one of us isn't drinking.

I order by the box, but only if the cardboard is flown in from the Cotes du Rhone region of France.

once when wife and i went to very uppity restaurant in georgetown area, if the wine was not on the list, corkage was $10. if it was on the list, cost was price of wine on the list. we did not have a list. so, i drained one of those boxes with a metalized bladder, and filled it with 2 bottles of decent white burgundy. thought about mixing a bottle of white and a bottle of red for rose to cover all food choices................http://images.ibsrv.net/ibsrv/res/sr...ies/tongue.gif

we carry a proseco(as a distributor). we have a "deal" for anyone that will pour it as a "by the glass". shows up on most lists at a very favorable price. the slow places on slow days burn a couple bottles a day. the "hot" places in dc burn cases of it per day. i assure a bottle is fresh if only open for 2-4 hrs, with a stopper in between times. let alone being open a few minutes.

Depends upon the place - many places that have a wine-knowledgeable clientele, and an interesting list, can typically cycle through bottles within a few days - and when that is the case, the nitrogen preservation systems work. But generally, even using these systems, a bottle will be tired in less than a week after it was opened.

sorry to be so cynical, but in my experience, less than half the "wine knowledgeable" crowd notice corked wine, let alone tired wines.

i do believe that is the reason for all the fancy new labels, and the cutesie names. name and label sell.

i have been offered and buying a lot of heavily discounted quality wines off of retailer shelves that do not move because they are not in fancy and cute packaging.

Me too.

"I want don't want wine with good taste, I want wine that taste good"
"Sorry Charlie"

Post of the day!. Those who talk most loudly about wine are often the least aware of how often they've been conned, scammed, overcharged or simply beflummoxed. These days, the walls and aisle space of wine merchants who cater principally to the restaurant/hotel/wine bar trade are lined with "deeply discounted" cases of decent, drinkable, modest wines with labels and names which lack eye-appeal, while tarted-up bottlings run out the door to be swilled by the "chic" and conspicuous consumers.

Order a glass and expect a new bottle to be opened? You and the next guy and the next guy after that, and pretty soon the joint has raised glass prices to bottle levels or closed, broke. Of course, with many of the currently offered US Merlots (these days "pop" wines, as Zinfandel was back when we were "unsophisticated consumers"), instead of a glass of most house Merlot, I choose to go "Mer-Less")

Proseco? As I recall in the halcyon days of my youth, a young naval officer in the "Med", back when a liter of crown-capped "local" went for 300 lira (and the lira was 640 to the dollar), whilst a variety of sparkling Italian wines of ill repute went for 600 lira, cheap cork-popping, no self respecting Brit or Frenchman would dip a lip into an Italian bubbly. Of course, this was before the Italians discovered that Americans would drink Lambrusco, served only to young children, grandmothers and Japanese tourists in Italy. Fancy bottles, shiny stopper-foil and cute labels do not great wines make, no matter the current trend. Even after our last trip to Spain, I remain comfortable that all sorts of Spanish "Cava" remain much less inflated in price or hyped in quality, than are most of the "Prosecos' showing up in US bars, restaurants and store shelves.

Fortunately, a few years back, my state, long in the Dark Ages when it came to booze and wine, advanced to the 14th century, now allowing us to carry home the bottles with wine left to finish later.

Of course, my favorite restaurant, recently closed after all the media folks who hung out there during the Bush '43 years had returned to their urban hovels, had no alky license at all, so BYOB held. If you brought your own corkscrew, there was no corkage fee (until the owner replaced the squat juice glasses with a selection of quaint dime store stemware, when it went up to $5).

Of course, I'm comfortable subscribing to the maxims promulgated by my old (and almost only) French friend who said:

"God, having created Pinot Noir, rested and cast his seed upon the wind, so that lesser wines might be created for the hoi polloi and lesser folk to swill."

"A single glass of wine is like unto coitus interruptus, never enough and lacking significance".

Well, quite simply, you've described folks who are not genuinely wine-knowledgeable, even if they think that they are. I would agree that far fewer of the folks who claim wine sophistication actually are wine-savvy.

I'll be the first to admit that I have a hard time telling the difference between a $20 bottle and a $100 bottle. This is why I usually get the $20 bottle...or $10, because really, who am I fooling. :)

I can, however, generally tell if the wine is corked.

I've had such poor luck with wines by the glass in the past that I almost never order them anymore. Bottles sitting recorked on the bar counter for who knows how long, though of course the bartender always assures me it was opened today-- but then it tastes like a leftover. Bartenders and managers too often giving me the stink eye when I send the glass back. Then there's the frustration of spending almost as much on a glass as I could buy the whole bottle for at a local market. If my dining companions won't share a fresh bottle with me, I'll order a diet soda at the restaurant and enjoy a drink from my own liquor cabinet when I get home. Much cheaper and more satisfying that way.

Same here. If I spend more than $12-$15 a bottle, it's only because I'm positive the wine is great (from prior consumption, generally on someone else's dime). And I'm not positive that I'd know if a wine was corked.

I like bringing my own bottle, paying the corkage and knowing that I'm going to get a very good wine to enjoy with my meal.

I find some restaraunts are very hit and miss with their selections.

With the mister, a bottle.

By myself, or at a work dinner, by the glass.

Agree with the above posts about half-bottles, there should be more available on restaurant wine lists!

You constantly hear reports of blind tastings and how supposed experts fail miserably at guessing expensive wines from cheap ones. I wonder if there is evidence to the opposite?