When do you send wine back at a restaurant?

WINE TALK
1

The replies at the Galloni / Modern thread really have me wondering under what conditions Berserkers send wine back at a restaurant. Maybe I’m doing it all wrong!

When do you send wine back at a restaurant?
(Check all that apply)

  • Top Restaurant - the wine is flawed
  • Mid-tier Restaurant - the wine is flawed
  • Top Restaurant - Somm recommended a wine, and you don’t like it / it doesn’t pair well with food
  • Mid-tier Restaurant - Server / Somm recommended a wine, and you don’t like it / it doesn’t pair well with food
  • Top Restaurant - you select a wine, and don’t like it / it doesn’t pair well with food
  • Mid-tier Restaurant - you select a wine, and don’t like it / it doesn’t pair well with food
  • Any Restaurant - you choose to send back only expensive bottles that you don’t like (tell us more in comments)
  • Any Restaurant - you choose to send back only inexpensive bottles that you don’t like (tell us more in comments)
  • Any Restaurant - I never send wine back
  • Other - please explain in comments
0 voters
2

Only if flawed.

For “liking it,” I assume the risk.

13 Likes
3

I’d send back bottles if I they were flawed or if I wasn’t the one choosing them. If I chose the bottle and it was sound than I would stick with the wine.

4 Likes
4

I chose high end and I don’t like the suggested wine from the SOMM. But it has a pretty big caveat. It also has to be something that has a characteristic I stated that I don’t like. For instance, I want a white wine without any petrol notes and he suggests a Sancerre that’s loaded with it.

3 Likes
5

any restaurant if the wine is flawed. sending a wine back because you don’t like it is a douchebag move.

12 Likes
6

So if you asked the somm to bring a fresh crisp white and they bought that ponderous natural wine monstrosity described in the referenced thread you’d just suck it up and drink it?

5 Likes
7

I wouldn’t insist on but I would expect a decent restaurant to take a bottle back, where I haven’t chosen the wine and the profile clearly does not fit. Its happened to me once before, I tasted and then handed a bit to my wife and neither thought it matched what we had asked for and they immediately offered to change it.

2 Likes
8

My understanding is that they can often sell it by the glass anyways unless you’re sending back DRC or montrachet or something.

1 Like
9

didn’t read the other thread which is on me. but my answer to the op is full stop. if i “asked” for a recommendation then i assume the risk like what anton said. i would just get a different bottle if i didn’t like it. i’ve done it before.

1 Like
10

Yes, I’m pretty sure in most mid to decent restaurants where they will recommend the wines, this is anyway the standard fallback.

11

i’ve sent back a drc rsv because it was flawed. this actually happened too with pox’d leflaive bbm and a flawed ramonet bm.

1 Like
12

yeah, i mean if the bottle is flawed definitely send it back. We had a la tache horribly corked once, luckily we ordered it off the list.

1 Like
13

If a wine is flawed, I’m going to refuse it. If a server recommends a wine and I don’t like it, I’m going to refuse it. If I oder a wine that is sound and don’t like it, I’ll have a conversation with the sommelier. At high end restaurants, I expect a conversation and, if appropriate, a substitution.

People send food back all the time when they don’t like it. Wine isn’t much different, depending on circumstances. At 3-4x retail pricing, at higher end restaurants wine refusal is built into the pricing as far as I’m concerned.

2 Likes
14

I had a hard time voting because I couldn’t find the bottom-tier restaurant category.

5 Likes
15

Good point. I have never had anything like that happen, but that might qualify!

:wine_glass:

3 Likes
16

Always if the wine is flawed, or not as touted (eg list says unoaked Chardonnay and it’s a vanilla bomb).

Never just because I dont like it (whether my choice or staff* recommendation) . If a serious dislike, I’d order something else and offer the offending wine t the staff.

  • if it’s a high end restaurant with a sommelier and it was their recommendation, I might start an open ended discussion and see what they do.
1 Like
17

You did not include

After the first sip
After drinking a full glass.
When the bottle is empty

1 Like
18

Other: I don’t order wine in restaurants as I do not like getting fleeced.

4 Likes
19

My “other” is very similar - 97% of the time I have wine in a restaurant they won’t take it back in any event because it came from my cellar.

But I did check a few boxes for the 3% when it came from their inventory instead.

20

Yeah we had a poxxed Ramonet Monty go back. It hurts when they only get 3 bottles allocated and lose one sale, but that’s how it goes.