Restaurant Etiquette

[Blue]

Last weekend I was in a restaurant and saw a bottle of wine I had been wanting to taste. It was listed on the wine list as follows:

Chateau Gloria St. Julien 95/96 $72

So I ordered it and asked for the '95. When the check came to the table at the end of the meal the check read:

Gloria '95 $82.50

Given that I was with a group and that I was surprised in the first place that they would sell the 95 and 96 at the same price, and that I didn't feel like arguing I paid the check and left....

But this experience has been gnawing at me. Sure the wine was worth what I paid for it (to me) but most of their wine list listed two years like that and I wonder if they make it a policy to only put the price of the cheaper of the two on the wine list. This seems deceptive to me.

Any thoughts? Have any of y'all seen this in restaurants you've been to?

[mrdutton]

I've never seen this trick before......

If you are close by the place, I'd suggest you go back there and complain. What they did is just not right.

Seems rude to me......

[hotwine]

I've not encountered that stunt before. As a deceptive trade practice, it's definitely worth a complaint to the manager, and an inquiry to the local chapter of the Better Business Bureau. I would try to obtain a copy of the wine list, either by fax or personal visit, and use that as evidence for the complaint.

[janrob]

Don't be too hard on the restaurant just yet Blue. It could have been an honest mistake, or do they charge a tax on beverages in MA, or could it be a restaurant gratuity?
It is the exception for a good restaurant to offer similar vintages for the same price when you are talking about Bordeauxs of this quality (good choice by the way). I certainly would have been sceptical if a '94 or '97 was included in your options. But despite what the Wine Spectator said about the vintages, the two years were both very good, and in fact I might have gone for the '96.

[Blue]

It was actually a restaurant in Stowe Vermont...and I have no idea if Vermont has a special tax on liquor which would be added to the wine price instead of at the end of the check...that doesn't sound right.

In any case I'm not going to report the restaurant or anything like this, I was very glad that they carried the wine and I think that the price was quite reasonable (2x retail) but I just didn't like the "little" surprise...

[Innkeeper]

Etiquette is a strange word for fraud.

[winoweenie]

Blue. I have a lot of friends who own fine restaurants and it's a common practice that when a restaurant that prints an expensive menu gets down to its last case of a vintage to put that vintage and the subsequent vintage on the list to avoid an expensive printing bill.If you run into this again it's a simple solution to ask the sommelier, waiter, or Mabel to bring you the 96. I can assure you all of the jernts I inhabit would be more than happy to give you YOUR choice. FRAUD indeed. Gracious sakes. winoweenie