][1]The blog was recently pointed towards this article about ordering wine in a restaurant.
It makes some sensible points about not being afraid to ask for advice, especially if there is a sommelier or wine waiter working.
The days of sommeliers being snooty because you can’t tell your Cotes du Rhone from your Burgundy are long gone. These days, the best sommeliers listen to what you are looking for and then gently steer you in the right direction.
The excellent ones will perhaps guide you towards something that you may not even have heard of, never mind thought of buying. More often than not, it will be a pleasant surprise.
If a restaurant is any good then they will have done their best to make sure that their house wine will be pretty decent.
If you want to splash a little more cash on a bottle of something special then the best value bottles are usually in the top half of the list.
At the lower end, the wine will have a mark-up of between 200-300%. Towards the top end, the mark-up tends to decrease considerably.
Naturally, BYOBs are always popular but there is a growing trend for restaurants, especially those involved in the wine trade, to offer bottles at retail price plus a flat corkage fee of say £5 or £10.
These deals offer a good opportunity to drink something out of the ordinary at a very reasonable price.
Off the top of my head, Calistoga in Edinburgh and The Pelican Cafe in Glasgow offer this sort of arrangement.