Visited my daughter in NYC recently and decided to step up and had dinner for two at Daniel. We each order the prix fixe meal and the food was superb. A bit of a different story with the wine. We ordered the wine tasting special to go with the meal at $90 per person. The wines were good, not anything special but the pours were tiny. Five different wines and the total would equal one third of a bottle of wine at best. Three of the five wines were Daniel private label. I wonder what their gross margin is on this deal. We enjoyed the food but felt ripped off on the wine. In retrospect, we could have ordered two good bottles (good, not exceptional) off the wine list for $180 rather than get stuck with their Daniel private labels.

That really is pretty deplorable for a restaurant with a reputation like that to serve such mediocre wines for $90 a person. I've had a number of the Daniel cuvees, and they might be worth $18 a bottle, but certainly not the $18 for the tiny pours you received.

Babbo has a 7 course tasting menu with 7 wines, and you get 7 half glasses for $45 and all the wines are actually quite interesting. And they're also much better matched with the cuisine then the Daniel house cuvees are.

FYI, full glasses of the Daniel Merlot at DB are $13.

That is unfortunate, esp. when considering both the quality of the food and the overall reputation. The last time we were there was about 18 months ago and I recall that the volume of the pairings was fairly routine (compared to other wine pairings with a tasting menu). I'm certain none of them was a Daniel private label.