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NY Times Article on Somm Wine Terms
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Wine Canuck
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Pet peeve; this has never happened with a somm but has happened a few times with regular waiters. Myself or another diner bring an older bottle to a BYO place. The waiter then aggressively opens the bottle shaking it about. Sometimes they get lucky and pull the cork out in one piece, but more often the cork breaks and they have to bring the bottle behind the bar to service it (I would prefer to see everything that's happening to my bottle thank you!). Then worst of all I have had on a few occasions a waiter flip the bottle upside-down to pour out into a decanter. This is usually met my a "whoa whoa, slow down there!" type of response from someone at the table and embarrassment on the part of the waiter.

Of course this has never happened to me at a real top tier establishment, but it has happened at a few decent places. I just can't understand why a manager at even a middle of the road type place that does BYOB wouldn't simply say to their staff; if it's more than 10 years old, be very very careful with it or ask me to help you.


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Posts: 785 | Location: Toronto, Ontario (Etobicoke) | Registered: Oct 27, 2010Reply With QuoteReport This Post
PurpleHaze
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quote:
Originally posted by Wine Canuck:
Pet peeve; this has never happened with a somm but has happened a few times with regular waiters. Myself or another diner bring an older bottle to a BYO place. The waiter then aggressively opens the bottle shaking it about. Sometimes they get lucky and pull the cork out in one piece, but more often the cork breaks and they have to bring the bottle behind the bar to service it (I would prefer to see everything that's happening to my bottle thank you!). Then worst of all I have had on a few occasions a waiter flip the bottle upside-down to pour out into a decanter. This is usually met my a "whoa whoa, slow down there!" type of response from someone at the table and embarrassment on the part of the waiter.

Of course this has never happened to me at a real top tier establishment, but it has happened at a few decent places. I just can't understand why a manager at even a middle of the road type place that does BYOB wouldn't simply say to their staff; if it's more than 10 years old, be very very careful with it or ask me to help you.


Why wouldn't you just handle the opening of the wine yourself? Most of the time when our group does BYO, we let the servers know that we will be very low maintenance as far as wine service is concerned. "Just bring us fresh glasses when we need them, and we'll handle the rest!" 99% of the time, this request is met with a look of relief on the server's part. Win-win.

PH
 
Posts: 15401 | Location: Maryland, USA (DC suburbs) | Registered: Nov 22, 2003Reply With QuoteReport This Post
GlennK
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quote:
Originally posted by Mimik:
I absolutely despise it when the waiters(more often than Somms) keeping pouring wine into an already filled glass so as to persuade you to drink faster so you can order another bottle!
I agree it is annoying if their obvious intent is to try to get you to order more wine. Luckily that hasn’t happened very often to me. Last night was the first time in a long while that a server was pouring a bit heavier than I like (he was not trying to get us to buy more wine but was just heavy handed). We just gave him the wave when he was pouring and it stopped. Pretty simple.
 
Posts: 6639 | Location: OC, CA  | Registered: Aug 01, 2007Reply With QuoteReport This Post
Red guy in a blue state
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My favorite from the article is Cougar juice (CA Chard or Malbec). Big Grin


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Sometimes I read a thread and think we ran out of stuff to talk about like 4 years ago. ~spo
 
Posts: 3029 | Location: San Diego | Registered: Jan 17, 2006Reply With QuoteReport This Post
g-man
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quote:
Originally posted by PurpleHaze:
quote:
Originally posted by Wine Canuck:
Pet peeve; this has never happened with a somm but has happened a few times with regular waiters. Myself or another diner bring an older bottle to a BYO place. The waiter then aggressively opens the bottle shaking it about. Sometimes they get lucky and pull the cork out in one piece, but more often the cork breaks and they have to bring the bottle behind the bar to service it (I would prefer to see everything that's happening to my bottle thank you!). Then worst of all I have had on a few occasions a waiter flip the bottle upside-down to pour out into a decanter. This is usually met my a "whoa whoa, slow down there!" type of response from someone at the table and embarrassment on the part of the waiter.

Of course this has never happened to me at a real top tier establishment, but it has happened at a few decent places. I just can't understand why a manager at even a middle of the road type place that does BYOB wouldn't simply say to their staff; if it's more than 10 years old, be very very careful with it or ask me to help you.


Why wouldn't you just handle the opening of the wine yourself? Most of the time when our group does BYO, we let the servers know that we will be very low maintenance as far as wine service is concerned. "Just bring us fresh glasses when we need them, and we'll handle the rest!" 99% of the time, this request is met with a look of relief on the server's part. Win-win.

PH


heck i bring my own cork screw and funnel as you've seen with teh cockburn 63 ;-)

cna you imagine the instructions i'd have to give for that?


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Posts: 12679 | Location: NYC | Registered: Feb 16, 2007Reply With QuoteReport This Post
futronic
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quote:
Originally posted by PurpleHaze:
quote:
Originally posted by Wine Canuck:
Pet peeve; this has never happened with a somm but has happened a few times with regular waiters. Myself or another diner bring an older bottle to a BYO place. The waiter then aggressively opens the bottle shaking it about. Sometimes they get lucky and pull the cork out in one piece, but more often the cork breaks and they have to bring the bottle behind the bar to service it (I would prefer to see everything that's happening to my bottle thank you!). Then worst of all I have had on a few occasions a waiter flip the bottle upside-down to pour out into a decanter. This is usually met my a "whoa whoa, slow down there!" type of response from someone at the table and embarrassment on the part of the waiter.

Of course this has never happened to me at a real top tier establishment, but it has happened at a few decent places. I just can't understand why a manager at even a middle of the road type place that does BYOB wouldn't simply say to their staff; if it's more than 10 years old, be very very careful with it or ask me to help you.


Why wouldn't you just handle the opening of the wine yourself? Most of the time when our group does BYO, we let the servers know that we will be very low maintenance as far as wine service is concerned. "Just bring us fresh glasses when we need them, and we'll handle the rest!" 99% of the time, this request is met with a look of relief on the server's part. Win-win.

PH


Technically it's against the law in Ontario for patrons to open their own wine in a restaurant. Once the waiter opens it, you can pour yourself if you like. Unless you know the staff, that is.

For older bottles that I bring to a restaurant, I will tell the person handling it that there is sediment and to be careful with it (i.e. don't shake it, decant carefully, etc).
 
Posts: 10969 | Location: Toronto, Canada | Registered: Apr 17, 2002Reply With QuoteReport This Post
PurpleHaze
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quote:
Originally posted by futronic:
Technically it's against the law in Ontario for patrons to open their own wine in a restaurant.


There are similar "laws" down here, too. Easy enough to get around in almost all cases. And, it's often easier to ask for forgiveness than permission....

PH
 
Posts: 15401 | Location: Maryland, USA (DC suburbs) | Registered: Nov 22, 2003Reply With QuoteReport This Post
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