I was at Argentinian steak house in San Francisco yesterday.
My buddy brought 2000 ducru Beaucaillou (very nice, in sweet spot).
The waiter took the bottle to the kitchen and brought back a decanted wine. The amount of wine in the decanter seemed low and I thought maybe he left some wine in the bottle. My friend noticed it too and thought the waiter saved a glass for himself.
Tempted to email the restaurant to complain but not that it’ll lead to anything.
I usually offer the sommelier or waiter a taste.
Do you have them decant in front of you? I am from now on.
(1) I would have a very hard time discerning accurately how 750 ml of wine would appear in a variety of unfamiliar decanters
(2) I can’t really see myself ever ordering a server or somm to decant my wine in my view
(3) if I really thought the somm had stolen some of the wine (but didn’t have any evidence other than my guess based on seeing it in their decanter), I probably would just not return to that restaurant.
The somm likely gets to drink plenty of nice wines for free. I truly doubt he needs to steal something like a Ducru from a customer. If it was a DRC I think your concern would be more valid. Ducru, doubt it.
Definitely the right way to do it Karl, as even mere doubts that some wine has been taken for the sommelier/kitchen/owner are problematic, as it risks the customer not returning, or in the modern era, them naming and shaming the establishment on social media.
Even if out of sight of that customer, that a decanting table is in broad view within the restaurant should indeed be sufficient.
You’ll be surprised how much attention a lowly Ducru would get from local sommeliers and wait staff.
Brought many Ducru-type wines to byob restaurants, never brought a DRC (my caveat).
Too late now, seems like the kind of thing to address then and there.
Proper protocol has been covered. Most places I’ve been to have the table mentioned above for general decanting, better ones will do it in front of you.
Sorry to hear you were annoyed, that’s a crappy way to leave a venue.
while there are degrees for somms and I’ve met many very qualified and experienced somms, unfortunately one can call themselves a somm without a degree or experience. And I’ve met some downright ignorant ones. Kind of different from most professions in not REQUIRING education or a degree though every profession has its share of incompetents. Hence, when at a restaurant where the somm is unknown to me, I usually ask to open and decant the wine myself and rarely am denied. I bring a Durand but no decanter. Not as often as a decade ago, the somm had never seen a Durand.
Could be if it was a place where they weren’t trained they may have just botched the job and the missing volume was not intentional but a spill or other mistake.
I was thinking something along these lines…maybe not exactly what you proposed . If you ended up with five glasses of wine give or take then you’re probably just overthinking it.
I have an idea of which place you were at. Most likely there is a member of the staff that has some wine training and they handed the bottle off to them to open/decant. While I severely doubt that they would be stealing wine from customer bottles, nothing shocks me about SF restaurants post-pandemic.
However, I would concur that most likely is not being able to judge the volume in their decanter. If you got 5 full glasses out of it, then I would not lose sleep.
Although not always, they often will return the bottle to the table - sometimes if the table is relatively small there may not be enough space. It’s not totally unreasonable for a Somm to taste the wine to make sure it is good - of course if it’s your bottle that is a bit moot.
Having watched too many idiots pick up the bottle and turn it horizontally, I mostly decant myself. I tend to bring older wines, and made sure that bottles that have stood in the cellar for days, babied in the car, only for the somm or wait staff to screw it up. Most of the time, I double decant at home.
What do you do about the cork in that case? I’ve done it a couple times and replaced with a different cork but curious about your approach and if you’ve ever encountered any issues with an already opened bottle?
