A Wine Story

5 Tips to Restaurant Entertaining

So you're planning a big night out on the town to celebrate a special occasion or woo a new date or business prospect. Everything must be perfect. You ask friends for recommendations or search your city's lifestyle magazine and make a reservation. Now all you do is show up and enjoy, right?

Not quite. In larger cities like New York, Los Angeles, and Chicago restaurants have the upper hand and it's diners who must take responsibility for confirming reservations to ensure a table and prompt seating. Once you confirm, however, you may want to go the extra nine yards to ensure a pleasurable event.

1. Visit the restaurant in advance and select a table to your liking.

Though it may not be possible to get the exact table, if you visit the restaurant outside of the busy lunch or dinner period and speak to the host or general manager, you can suggest tables that you like. For some restaurant professionals, it may be correct to give the individual your card in addition to a gratuity for this service.

2. Study the wine list in advance.

You want to look good in front of your client or date, and studying a wine list at the table takes time away from your guest. Many times you will be able to find the wine list online. Choose a few wines in case they run out, and try to find some interesting information about the wine beforehand.

3. Act confidently when the sommelier offers you a taste.

This procedure is to ensure that the wine does not have cork taint (oxidation through a bad cork) or another fault. If you smell and taste the wine and it is fine, simply wait until the server pours everyone's glass and enjoy when the server pours yours. Ignore the cork that is placed on the table. There is no need to smell it.

4. For large groups, consider ordering a bottle of white and red wine so your guests can have their choice.

A good sommelier should judiciously pour the wine in the glasses so that it reaches just the fullest part (usually the lower third) of the glass, so your guests can swirl and smell the bouquet.

5. It is considered gracious and correct to tip between fifteen and twenty percent of the total wine and food bill, not just food.

As always, gratuity is optional. Many people think there is not much work involved in opening a bottle of wine or twisting open a screw cap and pouring; however, many servers and sommeliers went to wine school to help guests with their choices, and are responsible for polishing the elegant glassware on the table.

Some people find five-star restaurants intimidating because of their formality, so it's important to realize that everyone at the restaurant from the hostess to the chef are at your service. So walk tall and expect the best – you deserve it.

Temecula faces wine-tasters gone wild ...

Here's a clip showing that drunken tasters is not just a problem in Long Island or the Napa Valley, but also Temecula, a wine region in Southern California.

Perhaps a solution is for tour operators to give people an "etiquette" sheet when they get on the bus to explain how they are to behave. Though individuals are ultimately responsible, the winerys and operators should educate the consumer before they drink to let them know:

1. How to taste
2. What to look for in a wine
3. Why the aroma alone is ultimately more important than the sip

Thoughts?

Wine Tasters ... Gone Wild?

...so in today's NYT you will find this eye-opening article about wine tasters in the North Fork gone wild!

According to the article, after a third of a century of trying to "get it right" in terms of viticulture and vinification -- and trying to lure wine-centric folks to the wineries to try the wines, the North Fork is experience a plethora of "drunken tasters" who shed their clothes, jump nude into ponds and lakes, and toss back the tasting-sized pours without regard to really "tasting" the wine.

Now, apparently, many wineries have posted "no bus" and "no limo" and "appointment only" signs on their property.

Curiously, the NYT says bachelorette parties are a big problem and many wineries have banned them and adds that The Wine Press, a local magazine, has printed wine tasting etiquette guidelines and rules of proper behavior. "Do not shout that something's disgusting because you don't happen to like it," the list says. "And don't take three-ounce pours as if they were shots."

What NOT to do at a wine tasting ...

A lot of readers email me with questions about proper etiquette at wine tastings.  Sometimes, at large commercial tastings, it's difficult for people just becoming interested in wine to figure out how to taste and evaluate a wine.

In the worst possible scenario, an individual might be surrounded by pack of other tasters, fighting for the attention of the server.

In the best possible scenario, an individual will have access to the wines being served beforehand, so he or she can research the wines to be poured. This is especially helpful for beginners as the individual can see what qualities to look for in the wine.

Beginners also sometimes have issues with using the spit bucket. Some may feel it's rude to "waste" expensive wine. Others may just feel it's rude to spit. Professional tasters use the spit bucket to offset "palate fatique" and taste through as many as eighty wines. Over time, most people find that sniffing a wine, experience its mouthfull and acidity levels, etc., is enough to qualify as a "taste."

One of the first lessons taught at the Wine & Spirits Educational Trust program is do not wear cologne ... yet there are more subtle etiquette lessons as well.

On the Palm Bay Imports site I found fantastic list that wraps up the subject quite well ...

What major faux paux do you see? Let us all know via the comment utility ...

So your guest orders a $300 bottle ....

Earlier, I created a post about ordering pricey wine when you are the guest. In this link,Cosmic Variance one of the authors behind the Cosmic Variance Website explains what happened when this individual took a guest to the Ritz Carlton in Chicago and the guest, presented with the honor of the wine list, asked for it by number rather than name.

The wine was much more expensive than the host had anticipated ....

"So, with some trepidation, we asked to peek at the wine list again. Turns out that the bottle we were drinking came in at $300 — not what we had meant to spend, but not completely obscene. And we hadn’t, in fact, ordered the wrong number; there was a mistake on the printed wine list, and two completely different bottles had the same number. Fortunately, this being a classy place, the wait staff was horrified that we hadn’t received what we had ordered, and offered to replace it (we declined), and wouldn’t think of charging us the more expensive price..."

So the question is, what would you do ...