jeffkahn
Happy Valley, PA
Grape Sorter
Posts:394
 | | 02/07/2006 8:27 AM |
| When you bring your own wine to a restaurant and pay the corkage fee, is it customary/polite/necessary to offer a taste to the waiter/sommelier/doorman/chef/valet?
Thanks! | | | |
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ChangeMe
Grape Destemmer
Posts:85
| | 02/07/2006 10:27 AM |
| | not customary, but always a nice touch to the sommelier or waiter | | | |
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JonesWineNo1
Sommelier
Posts:8568
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ChangeMe
Master of Wine
Posts:11169
| | 02/07/2006 3:02 PM |
| | If you do the waiter may drop the corkage fee. Of course, this is stealing from management in the hopes of a larger tip. | | | |
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love_cab_chard
Master of Wine
Posts:12352
| | 02/07/2006 3:47 PM |
| | If you wish, but not a common practice. | | | |
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Eric White
San Ramon, CA
Advanced Sommelier
Posts:9127
| | 02/07/2006 3:55 PM |
| | entirely discretionary. For me it depends on the service, the interest level of the server, sometimes what the wine is... | | | |
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Randy Sloan
St. Helena
Barrel Sampler
Posts:2054
| | 02/07/2006 4:46 PM |
| Eric explained it well...
If the waiter is interested and it becomes a topic of conversation then by all means, offer a taste. It's a nice touch. | |
Randy Sloan
Match Vineyards | |
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mountainman
Mammoth Mountain
Wine Bottler
Posts:3113
| | 02/07/2006 5:00 PM |
| | Agree with several portions above. If the waiter (assuming I don't know him...small town here) shows interest, I offer and this usually leads to no / lower corkage. I know most restaurant owners here and they usually wave corkage anyway, so I typically offer a taste to them as well. This is why I always bring an extra bottle with me...everyone else drinks all my wine! Back to the original question, if I know they are charging me corkage, I don't care how interested they are....NO. | | | |
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David Niederauer
Los Gatos, CA
Master Sommelier
Posts:15711
| | 02/07/2006 9:40 PM |
| Quote:
no
That's the old Jones I remember.
And I'll say, "Yes" just for the hell of it.
Actually I agree with Eric White 110%. | | | |
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JimmyV
Central Connecticut
Wine Connoisseur
Posts:5015
| | 02/08/2006 2:40 PM |
| | If a server or sommelier has never had the wine (either because I know it is too obscure for them to have had it or because they have said so), I will offer them a taste for educational purposes. But just giving them a sip to curry favor or out of custom? Not a chance. Let's not forget that beneath the veneer of niceness and interest lies a server who is secretly saying: "I don't want your wine you idiot. I want your money!" Excellent service should be rewarded with money. Not a patronizing sip of wine. Save the sips for people who are genuinely trying to learn and expand their horizons. | |
Beta testing a new signature. | |
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ChangeMe
Barrel Filler
Posts:1475
| | 02/09/2006 1:10 PM |
| When dining in a small group, I rarely offer any tastes to the staff (only when someone does a good job and shows a real enthusiasm for what I am drinking).
With the VC offlines, I think we make a habit of giving out lots of tastes. This seems appropriate lots of times because 1) there is plenty of wine and 2) we are a big group bringing in lots of wine and making a scene. Sometimes the results are a real pleasure - like getting the owner of Dino to come over, tell some great stories, give his impressions of our wine (although he hated my Spinetta   ) and get all of our corkage waived. Sometimes it seems a little forced - At Komi, both of our servers got tastes of SQN Mr. K Noble Man and Suduiraut and then discussed their relative merits compared to white zinfandel  . We also made sure pours of all the best wines got back to the kitchen for the chef, who made a brief appearance to thank us. We got charged corkage for all seven bottles we opened (including the 2 small format sweet wines mentioned above). I don't expect any fees to be waived for sharing - but if the corkage stays the same, and the people with whom you share the wine don't seem particularly thrilled to get it, I would just as soon leave a little in the bottle on the table than going through the production of telling someone how great the wine is that I am giving them. | | | |
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David Niederauer
Los Gatos, CA
Master Sommelier
Posts:15711
| | 02/09/2006 11:28 PM |
| Then there was the time at an offline when skwid sent a glass of some $5000 (or something like that) to a well known politician at another table. The A'hole took it and never had a drink; never even acknowledged us.
But we got the last laugh! Several months later we were at a different restaurant drinking Skwid's Chateau d'Yquem and saw the same A'hole at a nearby table. Do you think we sent him over a glass of Yquem?
No way baby!!! | | | |
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JonesWineNo1
Sommelier
Posts:8568
| | 02/09/2006 11:34 PM |
| | It was 96 Cristal | | | |
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David Niederauer
Los Gatos, CA
Master Sommelier
Posts:15711
| | 02/10/2006 12:12 AM |
| Quote:
It was 96 Cristal
So it was only a $500 Champagne.
You can tell he is more interested in something else than the wine.
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love_cab_chard
Master of Wine
Posts:12352
| | 02/10/2006 2:28 AM |
| 
Thanks for the laugh, guyz!
What does one have to do with another?!?  To me, the 2 (good wine & a good woman) go together & should be appreciated on the same level. Obviously, he has no taste (in wine). And, not much taste (in women) either. Although, the one on the left is not bad. A couple of drinks (i.e. 96 Cristal), & there you go...
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pizinah
Barrel Filler
Posts:1313
| | 02/10/2006 6:05 AM |
| Quote:
If a server or sommelier has never had the wine (either because I know it is too obscure for them to have had it or because they have said so), I will offer them a taste for educational purposes. But just giving them a sip to curry favor or out of custom? Not a chance. Let's not forget that beneath the veneer of niceness and interest lies a server who is secretly saying: "I don't want your wine you idiot. I want your money!" Excellent service should be rewarded with money. Not a patronizing sip of wine. Save the sips for people who are genuinely trying to learn and expand their horizons.
Pretty much agree with these thoughts. I won't offer to curry favor or out of any sense of custom, obligation or necessity. But if the waiter/sommelier is helpful, friendly, engaging and seems genuinly interested in the wine, I'll often offer a taste. I do so not expecting any break on corkage. | | | |
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Drew
Sammamish, WA
Wine Bottler
Posts:3080
| | 02/10/2006 12:28 PM |
| If I would have sent something over to Willy Brown, it would not have been mistaken for champagne...
If I am out with my wife, who rarely takes more than half a glass (if that), I'll usually give the waiter a half glass if he/she shows any interest. I don't think it's an attempt to get the corkage waived so much as it's me not wanting to get totally plowed at dinner. The coolest part? I've had the waiter come back several times with something from "behind the bar," completely defeating the purpose :-) To directly answer the question - I don't ever feel obligated to share. | | | |
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dinwiddie
Barrel Sampler
Posts:2155
| | 02/10/2006 1:13 PM |
| I have never felt obligated to share, but I always offer some wine to the server/somm./chef. After all, half the fun of having good wine is to share with folks who appreciate it. I have also found that places that offer good wine service usually have servers who appreciate a good wine.
At one of the DC Crü dinners the somm. was crusing the tables with a glass in her hand. She got tastes of all the wines that we had brought (I think we opened 10 bottles between the 8 of us) and by the end of the night everyone was looped.
Particularly memorable was the DC Crü dinner at Gabriel. The restaurant manager (we did not know at the time she was the manager) spent the entire evening with us, made sure we got excellent wine service (she even had another table brought over to hold all the wines) comped a bottle from the restaurant's list, and only charged us corkage for half the bottles. In addition, she had the chef come out to the table and talk to us. He had a glass with us too. It was interesting to find out that she read this board and was pleased to be able to meet the folks who were writing the reviews. She even told us that she had purchased some wines for the restaurant based on the reaction those wines got on this board. Not only that, but when any member of the Crü called for a reservation, we got preferental treatment. (Ask corkage about getting a reservation for Valentine's day.) | | | |
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Pool Boy
Laurl, MD (DC suburb)
Master of Wine
Posts:13660
| | 02/10/2006 2:22 PM |
| Quote:
I have never felt obligated to share, but I always offer some wine to the server/somm./chef. After all, half the fun of having good wine is to share with folks who appreciate it. I have also found that places that offer good wine service usually have servers who appreciate a good wine.
At one of the DC Crü dinners the somm. was crusing the tables with a glass in her hand. She got tastes of all the wines that we had brought (I think we opened 10 bottles between the 8 of us) and by the end of the night everyone was looped.
Particularly memorable was the DC Crü dinner at Gabriel. The restaurant manager (we did not know at the time she was the manager) spent the entire evening with us, made sure we got excellent wine service (she even had another table brought over to hold all the wines) comped a bottle from the restaurant's list, and only charged us corkage for half the bottles. In addition, she had the chef come out to the table and talk to us. He had a glass with us too. It was interesting to find out that she read this board and was pleased to be able to meet the folks who were writing the reviews. She even told us that she had purchased some wines for the restaurant based on the reaction those wines got on this board. Not only that, but when any member of the Crü called for a reservation, we got preferental treatment. (Ask corkage about getting a reservation for Valentine's day.)
That is pretty kewl, dw.
Do you remember who started the concept of the 'back-up' wine? | |
www.roguefood.com -- www.cellartracker.com | |
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dinwiddie
Barrel Sampler
Posts:2155
| | 02/10/2006 6:46 PM |
| Quote:
Do you remember who started the concept of the 'back-up' wine?
I don't remember, but I think it was James. Considering how many "back-up" bottles we end up opening sometimes, the per person consumption levels are getting pretty high. I remember it being 1.5 bottles per at one point, but that makes getting home an adventure, even on the METRO. Of course, the more Crüdites in attendance, the more backup bottles that get opened. The dinner at Gabriel would have gone longer if some of us hadn't needed to run to make the last METRO train. As it was we were there for over 4 hours. | | | |
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