When you’re choosing from the wine list at a restaurant, you’ll probably go to the cheapest at the bottom initially. To save embarrassment, however, you’ll probably go up a bottle or two so you don’t seem like a dirty cheapskate.
It’s okay, we’ve all done it. It’s not actually an embarrassment to go for the cheapest wine on the list. In fact, according to Sommelier Mark Oldman, wine directors are onto you craftiness and have parried your move before you’ve even arrived. He explains in his book “How To Drink Like a Billionaire“:
“Knowing that it will sell swiftly, he [the wine director] may have slotted an overstocked bottle into the position on the list. Even worse, he may have marked up this wine more than any other, making it potentially the worst value on the list.
“You are better served to order the cheapest wine, which diners often neglect out of fear or embarrassment and thus is often a better value. Just make sure you do so at a restaurant that cares about its wine, where even modestly prices wines are of admirable quality.”
(Image: St Swithin)
That’s not the only advice he can offer. Apparently it’s always best to choose a bottle and split the price between one another rather than getting a glass on its own:
“Wines by the glass are so marked up that it is practically industry scripture that the cost of the first glass covers what that restaurant paid wholesale for the bottle.”
The more you know. No need for that feeling of guilt or being cheap when choosing your wines now.
Source: Independent