Clitheroekid wrote:Most of the wine was priced in the £20 - £40 mark, but I noticed one bottle all on its own at around £400.I couldn't understand the rationale for this, so asked the waiter if they ever sold any.
"Oh yes" he said, "We sell a few bottles each year. We regularly get a group coming back from the races with one bloke who's had a good day and is showing off. He'll not bother looking at the wine list, and will just snap his fingers and say in a loud voice "Bring me the best wine in the house". His face when he gets the bill makes my day!"
A friend of mine is a sommelier and has had that experience a few times. On one occasion he realised, as he poured it for tasting, that it was corked. But the show-off sipped it and declared it to be good. This placed my friend in an awkward position. Does he serve a thousand pound bottle of wine that is crap, and say nothing? Or does he speak up and make the show-off look stupid?
He finessed it by saying nothing, allowing the table to drink their bad wine. Most had probably no idea what a bottle of wine that expensive should taste like anyway, and didn't dare air their complaints even if they did. So the table was happy, the showoff was happy, and the restaurant was happy.
And as a gesture, he gave them a bottle of the second most expensive wine, on the house.
