Share a wild wine story/experience you've had in a restaurant

WINE TALK
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I have a bunch…here is one I wrote up on Vinous that I titled Two Old California Wines and a Rock Star:

I am heading out to Napa this weekend to see friends, enjoy spring and to drink some old school Napa cabs with some winemaker friends.

I have heard rumors of an Italian joint for years that has quite a selection of old school California wines (interestingly the owner told me he got pissed at France in the early 1970s and dumped all of his Bordeaux and Burgundy down the drain) so I decided to try it out to prep for the weekend.

Whenever I hear about places like this they often disappoint. This started out rocky as my first bottle had a horrible fill but luckily the owner said call me with a few days notice next time I will stand it upright and we will see if it is any good. I then moved on to my next choice (1973 Mayacamas) and it turned out it was priced as a 750 but it was a mag and since I was dining alone I opted for a 1976 Mayacamas:

https://www.instagram.com/p/Bg2D3l7l97D/?taken-by=soilpimp

Initially somewhat closed aromatically it had a beautifully elegant taste with enormous depth. Very clean and just a beautiful bottle.

I text some screen shots of the list to Ketan Mody and he says go with the 1979 Phelps Eisele! An interesting choice because there are some legendary wines in the list to I move on to the 1979 Phelps Eisele:

https://www.instagram.com/p/Bg2Jg0kFo7W/?taken-by=soilpimp

What a beautiful wine. More open aromatically and a bit riper, more polished. Not sure which wine I enjoyed more.

The thing I liked most about both of these wines is they were both obviously from Napa and harnessed what Napa does best without going over the top.

Now about the rock star part. Keep in mind this is an old school Italian joint with less than 8 people eating. In the middle of dinner in walks Billy Corgan, alone, he is obviously a regular. I have been a big fan of his since the beginning of his career. I send him a glass of the 79 Phelps. He evidently loves it and asks the server if he could have another glass. I say of course and tell him it is a 1979 a great vintage and a great song! He gets a big chuckle out of that (one of his most famous songs is called 1979)

Meanwhile I am texting with a friend who knows him well who texts him that a mutual friend just sent him a glass of wine. He finishes his press interview and comes over and sits down with me for 25 minutes or so. He immediately says haven’t we met before. I say yes but it was 15 years ago in your dressing room right before going on Saturday Night Live. What a lovely guy who doesn’t know much about wine but knows a good one when he tasted it…

A surreal night…

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Lol, awesome. SP is probably my most-listened-to band of all time, so as a fan of Corgan’s work, I got a chuckle out of this one as well!

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My partner doesn’t drink much wine, but really loves Dom. P. I booked a photographer to do “photos with our corgi” as an excuse to have a photographer for when I asked her to marry me. I had been in email contact with the somm at the establishment.

We order food and the somm pours the bottle of Dom and the weather was starting to get quite cloudy. The photographer said something like “Oh, this kind of tastes like Champagne! I only drink moscato.” “I don’t really like Prosecco, but this is great” stuff like that.

I nod and carry on with the meal. The photographer is actually a friend I met through a local food group and is super nice and I didn’t want to do the whole “Well… Champagne is…”

The weather was turning for the worse and we all only have about half a flute of wine worth. I talk to the somm and said “we should head back. It’s a long drive. You all can have the rest of the bottle.” It was about 90% full. The somm was like really??

Our server comes back and I had explained since we’re driving it wouldn’t be responsible to drink anymore and feel free to have the rest of the wine.

The server gave me sort of a nasty “wtf is wrong with you” glare. My assumption was he thought I was trying to pawn off my garbage on the staff or something. I waited until the somm came back to take the bottle because I had this inkling the server was going to be like “fuck this guy” and pour it down the sink.

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The “wtf is wrong with you” is not drinking a perfectly good bottle of dom.

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I’ve written this up in other contexts, but this is a good thread to repeat it.

Summer of 1982. Sally and I are in France. This is my first professional wholesale buying trip, and the first time Sally and I have been away alone together in the 5 years since our son Matt was born.

Our last night in France. It had been blazingly hot in Bordeaux and incredibly was not much cooler in Paris. We’ve booked our only Michelin starred dinner of the trip, at Vivarois, *** (three stars!).

Late July, 8:00 PM, outside temperature over 90F, restaurant almost empty as we enter. One table of about 10 Japanese, one other couple and us. I’m dying in coat and tie. The Japanese, all ditto, aren’t too perky either nor the other couple. Waiter brings menus and we order: Curried oysters for Sally (house specialty), bloc of foie gras for me (can’t resist no supplemental charge). Another couple breezes in. I get the impression of a well-travelled American man, in white jacket, with younger French date. The restaurant door has been left open and a sad floor fan is not moving much of the hot air. Man sits, then stands and takes off his jacket. Me, the man in the other couple, and 10 Japanese simultaneously do likewise, looking gratefully at our liberator.

Sommelier, looks and walks just like Charlie Chaplin, deadpan. I order a bottle of 1976 Late Harvest Gewurz. No change in his expression, except that we could feel his whole mood change; now he’s alive and interested, and his warmth quotient has gone up 1000%. I’ve ordered the only thing on the extensive list that goes with both apps - LH for the foie gras, Gewurz for the curry. Next, translated from his bad English, my non-existent French and Sally’s occasional help:

“Monsieur likes wine?”

“Oh, yes!”

“I have some good half bottles in the cellar that are not on the list. Would you like me to serve you some?”

“Yes, but I should know the costs.”

Instead of the dreaded, expected, “don’t worry about the cost”, the sommelier looked me straight in the eye and said:

“Monsieur, I will not hurt you.”

I trusted him.

“Bring 'em on!”

The food was wonderful, but completely lost. I cannot remember a single dish other than the appetizers that provoked the wonder. I will never forget the wines, all in 1/2 bottle:

1976 Batard Montrachet, Leflaive

1971 Chablis Grand Cru ‘Les Clos’, Long-Depaquit

1969 Vosne-Romanee 1er Cru ‘Grande Rue’ Lamarche

1964 Chateau Cheval Blanc

1961 Hermitage ‘La Chapelle’, Jaboulet-Aine

The bill came. It had three lines.

2 covers

1 Gewurz LH

1 ‘vins divers’

The ‘vins divers’ came to $50 American. As I left, I tried to thank the sommelier. He said “It is I who owe you the thanks because you like good wine. Few of my customers, even French, care about it.”

Dan Kravitz

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Wow did 61 la chapelle show well? Pretty cool to drink the pre 92 1er la grande rue too.

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Tough to follow Dan’s epic tale! In 2000, my girlfriend’s (now wife) parents were visiting us in Chicago and decided they wanted to take us to Charlie Trotter’s. My late father-in-law was a wine guy (and had been a major factor in me getting into wine in the early 90s).

Anyway, we get to the restaurant, take the cellar tour, get seated and start looking over the list. I glance over at the table next to us, and they’ve got a vertical of Heitz Martha’s going: 74, 84 and 94. Nice! I chat briefly with them and compliment the wine lineup.

About 45 minutes later, they are getting up to leave and stop at our table to make a dessert rec. Super nice people. After they are gone, the somm brings the three decanters from their table - which are all basically half full - and tells us they asked the staff to give the rest of the wine to us. Flabbergasted, and having ordered a couple of bottles already ourselves, we offer the somm glasses of all the Martha’s (our wines were not in the same league and I barely remember what they were beyond an Alsatian white and a CdP).

The meal was excellent but the kindness of strangers made it amazing.

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One of my favorite wine stories was @Jonathan_Favre walking around the steakhouse we were in pouring every table glasses of 1996 Gosset from magnum at the end of one of our wine dinners.

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Bad experience #1

The nomad opened in LA. We went first week. The wine director from NY came to lead wine service. They took the 2001 (?) Marcel Juge I brought. Decanted without asking at their wine service table. Then 3 different wine people tasted the wine.

Oh then afterwards told us we can only open 2 btls when we brought 3 for 3 of us cause they weren’t ready to handle more wine at the moment. But… they were totally okay with us buying one off the list :rofl:

Bad story #2

A restaurant that’s selling point is that every server is a sommelier had some nice wine on the list.

We ordered a 2004 PYCM Montrachet. It was oxidized to death.

We ordered a 2000 DRC romanee conti - clearly stewed and heat damaged. We barely drank any from the bottle.

To their credit the did not charge us. We ordered plenty of wine after that made up for the price of the 00 conti.

The next day the GM messages my friend who organized the dinner. That he tasted the DRC the next day and it was perfect. Then banned him from the restaurant.

Good stories both happened very recently

Good story #1

Was at a casino steakhouse bar and browsing their wine list. Tried to order a $200 btl of Chablis. They searched far and wide. Out of stock.

Then I tried to order a 2020 DRC 1er vosne. They searched far and wide. Couldn’t find it.

Wine director comes out to apologize. Tells me she feels terrible that she can’t find either of the btls I want. She then says - “it looks like you appreciate good wine. I just got in a white wine from DRC. I can offer you it for a small amount above our cost”

I say “how small”

She replies with the number.

Before she finishes I’m nodding my head yes.

And that kids is how I met your mother.

Jk 2020 drc corton Charlemagne

Good story #2

We were having a dinner at Providence in LA. Near the end of dinner the somm asks if we’d like to try a blind wine that another guest is offering.

Long story short. It’s 2018 petrus. The stranger comes to sit with us. He drank maybe 15% of the bottle at dinner. He was eating solo. So we sat and chatted and drank the rest of his petrus to end the night.

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I just acted this to my wife including accents and it was good. Thanks for sharing and I envy your night :wine_glass:

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That Petrus was good.

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Picture above is before the storm… This past November at Troisgros - my wife and I were walking down the stairs to the lounge for a cocktail with friends before dinner and randomly run into Paul R. and his crazy fun group of friends. We then raid the list for hours before dinner - having free rein over the list because the master somm was joining us after 20+ years of service with his upcoming pending retirement. All just happened instinctively as only someone stumbling into the best case scenario could :). Crazy fun night full of gems - I was truly worried about what the bill would be the next day - didn’t care all that much the night of - lol. Worth every euro! Most if not all wild wine experiences are about putting yourself in the right place + sharing with other crazy wine peeps. CHEERS

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That sounds fun but could change the annual wine budget!

When we were at the Rousseau dinner with Brad e in NYC some of the ppl said they spent a WEEK raiding the list at tour de argent… must’ve been a fun week.

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Was it Le Chambertin, Mark?
My father, who did not know squat about fine wine, used to go there; I guess he had discovered that he liked Pouilly-Fuissé and that’s all he would order. I was too young at the time, but Iater got into Burgundy, I was appalled at the missed opportunity.

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The wines were a perfect crescendo, each better than the last. The '61 Hermitage was easily one of the top 10 wines of my life. Impossible of course to compare them to each other, about as different as you can get, but the somm absolutely nailed the tasting order.

Dan Kravitz

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Nice, I’ve only had it from 750 and mag more recently, guessing 375 was good at age 21 or so.

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Not what was intended but I think this fits.

Many years ago, I was having problems with a co-worker. Our boss decided to get us together to talk it out over lunch, knowing we wouldn’t create a scene in a restaurant. I don’t know how but my co-worker picked the location. Why he picked what he did became obvious as soon as we walked through the door. All the staff knew him and his regular order and I assume he picked this place for a “home court advantage” of sorts.

We have been seated for a while and emotions are running high when down comes a wine glass in front of me, only me, and the owner pours me a taste of a new wine he just got in. It wasn’t anything great. It was a nice Rosso conero but it tasted like the greatest wine in the world at that moment. Obviously, it is a bit childish but I enjoyed watching my co-worker realize that his home court advantage didn’t exist. He knew the employees but I knew the owner and have for over a decade, dined at his previous restaurant and bought much wine from him.

The whole mood changed after that. Things calmed down and we actually did work out most of our issues. I also bought a couple cases of Rosso Conero to enjoy over the next few years. I never found out if the owner knew what he did but I suspect he did.

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This was one of my first posts on WB I think

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I’ve told this before. Back in the very early eBob days, Howard Horwitz (RIP) and I think Uncle Matty organized a Shafer dinner at Campanile (there was one held contemporaneously on the east coast). We tasted every bottle of Hillside Select ever made (including the Sunspots) up to that point. John Shafer (RIP) showed up secretly with the latest HSS bottled, which hadn’t yet been released. There was a lot of wine. It was one of the most fun wine maker dinners I’ve attended. John was a gem, and very entertaining.

Halfway or later during the dinner, a young Asian guy showed up and, after the dinner, proceeded to order the cherriest cherries on Campanile’s list. Many bottles. I was nervous about what my share of the damage would be, until someone noticed my discomfort, leaned over and whispered, “Don’t worry about it. Rudy will pay for everything he orders.”

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Amazing story, Dan. Interestingly to me, this is far from the first time that the native French have no care for their own fine wine.