definitions

[Tastevin]

Kcw, what a load of codswallop, tosh, and balderdash (how's that for idiosyncratic language?)! I’ve heard some excuses given to explain errors, but yours really does take the biscuit. It’s a classico. I expect that in Italy in 3 years (usually) it will also be regarded as a riserva.

Because you have wined and dined extensively in all of your 50 states, and because an Italian restaurant appears not to properly train its waitstaff (don’t know the word, is it new English?) in the intricacies of its wine list, you assumed the Classico Matteson was asking about was a Chianti. No, wait, I’ve got that wrong, you assumed it “would most likely….”. You may well have been correct, but the fact is you did not know and you were not, and could not have been, certain. For all you knew, he could have seen “Classico” on a Soave for instance. However, even if your assumption was correct, there’s no getting away from the fact that your answer was misleading. The questioner enquired about “Classico”, your response only mentioned it in relation to Chianti thereby giving the impression that only Chianti has such a sub-region. If you knew otherwise, don’t you honestly think you should have said? Come on my friend, own up.

Re “If it makes you feel any better, I know absolutely nothing about the wine selections in the restaurants of Essex, England”. I don’t know what that’s got to do with it or why that unnecessary information should make me feel any better. I do know a lot about restaurants in Great Britain, even so, had I been given the same question here I would not have been so presumptuous as to assume I knew the questioner was talking about a particular wine/region. Even if (God forbid) I were, I would still have given the answer I posted because it is the correct one.
Now that I have all guns blazing let’s get back to the subject of “Riserva”. What help do you think your definition of “Riserva” - “Riserva is a designation for a wine that's supposed to be better than the regular bottling from a particular winery” - was? If one does not want, or is unable, to give a helpful answer it is best to keep quiet.

There is something you could help me with if you wouldn’t mind. Earlier in the year a friend dined in a French restaurant in New Orleans and enjoyed a bottle of wine. However, his lunch was marred somewhat because the waiter, nor any of the latter’s colleagues, could tell my friend what “Grand Cru” is. Unfortunately my friend has forgotten the name of the wine. Could you use your expertise to tell me what the wine was please?

Oh, by the way, thanks for putting me straight regarding “period”. However, I must confess to a certain modicum of doubt about your info. I shall have to check it out with my many Yankee friends who immigrated here for a worse life many moons ago. Mind you, they may not have retained any of their old linguistic idiosyncrasies. I won’t jump to any conclusions, best to wait and see, don't you think? T.