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Once upon a time, in the land of snobby sommeliers, a diner was expected to make a split-second decision about a wine’s acceptability the moment a taste of a wine was poured. The wine professional, bottle in hand and a look of superiority on his face (they were all men in this dark history), stood at the ready to challenge any assertion the diner may have attempted to make about the quality of the wine. He had already taken a sniff and a sip from the polished tastevin worn around his neck and had pronounced it fit to drink; the ceremony was all for show and said diner’s opinion was entirely beside the point. Fortunately, we’ve moved into a new era and world of sommeliers.
The rules of sending a bottle back at restaurants have changed. While it’s probably still best to only do so when there’s something genuinely wrong with the wine—such as it has suffered from cork taint (TCA), been overpowered by Brettanomyces, undergone oxidation, or refermented in the bottle—we spoke with several sommeliers and beverage directors and were repeatedly told that they will take a bottle back simply if the customer doesn’t like it. “Even if a bottle is not flawed, I take it back as I want the guests to leave happy and want to come back because they will remember that they were treated well,” says Aviram Turgeman, beverage director at New York City’s Chef Driven Hospitality.
Unlike the sommeliers of old, today’s crop is interested in helping their guests have the best experience possible, which means exchanging a bottle even if it is perfect. “After resolving the issue and providing a new bottle, I will taste the returned wine behind the scenes,” says Genaro Gallo Escudero, wine director at Eight Tables restaurant in San Francisco.“Whether the guest’s complaint is valid or not, they should not have to drink something they believe is not up to standard.” In the best-case scenario, the problem will be pointed out as soon as the bottle is presented, but sometimes flaws are not immediately obvious. Even so, it’s never too late to call your wine professional back to the table and ask them to re-evaluate the bottle with you.
“In an ideal world, the guest should let the service professional know right away, when they first taste the wine, that it is flawed,” says master sommelier Des Echavarrie. “In practice, it is almost always 10 to 20 minutes later and after the wine has been poured.” He points out that once a significant portion of the wine has been poured it makes it difficult for the establishment to return a problematic bottle to the distributor for credit but adds that “regardless of whether it is economically prudent, a restaurant should make every reasonable effort to accommodate the guest.”
If there is a flaw, try to spot it quickly
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It helps if the sommelier takes a sip before pouring, but we don’t always see that put into practice. One exception is Alex Ring, Michelin Guide 2023 Chicago Sommelier Award winner and wine director at Chicago restaurants Sepia and Proxi. “I taste every bottle I open, so I’ll usually intercept a flawed bottle of wine before it gets into the guest’s glass,” he says. “I’m also familiar with the offerings on my list, so if I know a wine tends toward being funky, I make sure to have a quick conversation with the guest before I pull the cork.”
That’s a crucial point: It’s important to know what you’re ordering and what to expect. Wine professionals are in line on this point as well, all stating that it is their job to let the customer in on what to anticipate when the bottle is opened. Scott Stroemer, beverage director at Chicago’s Michelin-starred Galit, tries to do it with honesty and humor on his wine list. “We often use blurbs, for lack of a better term, on the menu that serve that purpose,” he says. “‘Chuggable Pet Nat of ancient Cypriot red varietal’ works as a gatekeeper of sorts, to invite the natural wine fans in while telling people this isn’t what you’re looking for if you want Champagne or Prosecco.” While Turgeman doesn’t add coded language on his wine list at Chef Driven’s recently opened restaurant Acadia, he always makes sure to point out the style of wine being ordered if it may fall on the funkier side of the spectrum. “It is our job to explain in a language or verbiage [people] would understand, such as a friendly heads up about farmyard aromas or a ‘good stink,’ or to explain that oxidation can be pleasant,” he says.
What happens if you return a bottle that’s not actually flawed? While it’s not something you should do on a regular basis, you can rest assured that the bottles go to good use. Echavarrie tells of a returned wine he describes as “an expensive bottle of Burgundy abbreviated by three initials,” which the customer thought was off, but he and the wine director found to be in perfect condition. “We poured the wine for other guests in a different part of the restaurant that would have never gotten to taste it otherwise,” he says. Grace Newport, beverage director at San Francisco’s Epic Steak, says sometimes she’ll set those opened bottles aside until the end of service where she can use them for some staff education. Receiving a different style of wine than expected can even have a silver lining for the customer who ordered it. Turgeman tells of a guest who ordered Châteauneuf-du-Pape Blanc and was surprised by the white wine, not red, that was opened at the table. “They were apologetic about it, but I insisted that they keep the glasses I poured just so they could see how great it was. I brought them the bottle of rouge, which they enjoyed, but now they are big fans of Châteauneuf Blanc.”
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