Server pulls wrong wine…
That’s a pretty big oops, as Le Pin looks nothing like Pichon Lalande. Some customers I have called on have had servers pull a Beaucastel Hommage vs standard CdP for instance, so it happens.
The poor guy. Forced to drink modernist swill and too polite to complain.
Bottle cost around $2500. Incredible PR value minimum $25k. (Best restaurant in NW England) Teasing the employee another $1000. I think they made out like bandits.
I would imagine le Pin isn’t much ‘better’ than '01 Pichon Lalande, but haven’t had any le Pin to compare. The restaurant handled it with amazing professionalism, and completely turned it into a marketing boon. Smart!
I had the 2001 Le Pin once, poured by the winery owner, sitting overlooking his vineyard, from 3.0L no less. I love Pichon Lalande more than most, but the Le Pin was at a whole different level. Call it modernist or what you want, but it was some of the best Merlot I have ever tasted.
[mic drop]
BUT did Eric arrive at Le Pin in a helicopter???
They had to know what was going on when presented with the bottle. So they basically stole it.
I’m a bit surprised the customer didn’t notice . . . the '01 Pichon isn’t exactly an everyday wine either, and the customer probably picked it with intention. Did the barkeep not present the bottle? Did the customer just assume the right one had been pulled?
Haha, nope. Not even a little.
I arrived there in 2010 to speak at the MW Symposium on a panel about wine and the Internet. Fiona Morrison was one of the co-organizers of the conference that year, and she and Jacques had all the speakers over for dinner after the symposium was done to thank us. They were unbelievably gracious and lovely.
Could have been the 2nd or 3rd bottle in…but yeah, if they DID see it, they would have to know they might get charged for it, and it’s not the same price as Pichon…so perhaps they saw it and figured they could just argue their point. They ordered Pichon, that’s what they’ll pay for. As Paul said, if that’s the case, they stole it.
Yeah, if you think about this too hard it does stretch credulity a bit. Unless the customers had more money than sense, ordering a top Bordeaux ( the P-L) with no idea as to what it was was, and / or the resto not first presenting the bottle.
And then an almost perfect response by the restaurant!
In real life, they get charged for the Le Pin, they argue it, the restaurant throws them out, police are called and it’s on the six o’clock news.
Still a great story.
I can believe it easily.
“Can you recommend a good red wine for around 300 pounds? We’re here to celebrate. Sure, that 2001 whatever you said sounds good to me.”
Remember this is a steakhouse chain with people sitting at the bar.
Right. And most people, even those who buy expensive wine, don’t know one from the other. Unless like what seems to be a growing number, they live in their phones and they take a picture of every bottle they consume and look up the ratings so they know whether they’re supposed to like the wine or not.
But all in all, I agree with Mark. The restaurant comes off as being a place that not only has a good wine list, but also as a place that’s not too snooty and pretentious. The kind of place you’d want to visit. Great marketing. Now we’re all talking about a place that most of us have never heard of and people in the area are also doing so and are more likely to visit.
And locally, the story might continue if the people are found and make the inevitable news clips.
For those of you in the UK, this might be the best part of the whole story…
Nice.
On my honeymoon my wife and I ordered a 1995 Grand Puy Lacoste and the waiter (who really had no clue about wine) brought out a 1995 Lafite Rothschild. We send it back but I thought about it for a fraction of a second…
What about the fact that they tried to order a second bottle? For 2 people at the bar? Makes me think they must have known; I have to admit, I’d have been tempted, though probably would not have pulled the trigger.
Maybe they did know…but. lots of people are pretty tuned out the ritual of opening and showing the wine to them barely registers and they really are mindlessly nodding without really paying an ounce of attention. Or maybe they couldn’t really remember what they ordered and had no idea what they were getting. Who knows?