Club Newsletter - July 2025
- Gary Parker
- Jul 2
- 4 min read
Updated: 2 days ago
Reader Wine Stories
Reader Wine Stories
I found some light-hearted wine stories submitted to various web sites I thought I would share . . .
Years ago my wife and I went to an inexpensive restaurant for dinner. The wine list was small and nothing on it was particularly interesting. I ordered a red Mouton Cadet figuring that it would be fine. The waitress brought out a bottle of white Mouton Cade. I politely told her that we ordered the red version so she took back the bottle of white only to return with the same bottle a few minutes later. She told me she asked the Chef and he told her that the white wine was actually made from red grapes, so it was really a red wine. We drank the white wine . . .
Bad (sort of) First meal back in a restaurant after COVID shut everything down. Went to one of our favorite local places which had always had great food and service. So much turnover and all the waiters were new. Order a bottle of Rivers-Marie Pinot Noir. The waiter proceeds to brutalize the capsule and then the cork. Once the cork is out, he expresses loudly: “Wow. First Cork removed EVER!”.
I asked him to decant the bottle. We are in mid-conversation and he comes back with a granite wine chiller, plops it on the table and proceeds to try to pour the wine into the chiller. I have never before and never since actually grabbed the arm of a server. He was very apologetic and very earnest. No harm no foul.
Good Was invited to a nice resort to play golf for my birthday by a good friend. Probably 2016 or 2017. My friend paid for my room, paid for my golf and paid for all meals. I was trying to figure out a way to pay him back “a little”. We were going to meet at the bar before dinner. I got there early and asked the bartender what was the best glass of liquor that he had.
He said they had just gotten a bottle of 25 year old Old Rip Van Winkle (a bottle that appears to be selling for $50K+ on-line now). I buy a glass for myself and a glass for my friend for $256 each. A splurge, but really the only way I was going to get to pay for anything that weekend. The General Manager/Sommelier comes to serve it out of curiosity. My friend comes down and tries it and does not like it (it was pretty awesome, but its’ high proof and he likes mellower mixed drinks better). I gave his glass to the General Manager.
We go to dinner and have a great meal. Order 2 bottles of Saxum (2007 James Berry and 2010 Bone Rock). Since I ordered the expensive wine, I insist that I pay for them when the bill comes. My friend says sure, which was a huge surprise. The General Manager had zeroed out the bottles.
1. USA, CA
In the 1970s and 80s we holidayed in the US. Heading south along the coast after staying in St Helena in Napa Valley we had dinner in a restaurant and ordered a California Cabernet Sauvignon from the list. When the waitress bought it to us it was very cold and crusted with ice. I said it was too cold.
The waitress said all the wines were like that as the boss kept them all in the cold room, but to leave it to her. Five minutes she brought back the bottle, no longer crusted with ice and a reasonable temperature. She said she’d put the bottle in the dishwasher. The wine was fine.
2. USA, VA
Decades later, after having children stopped our trips to the US I was sent by my new employer to Virginia as part of an international team. First night six of us foreigners met in a restaurant for dinner. I took responsibility for ordering the wine, because no one else would. I told them about Zinfandel, this great spicy red unique to California. But I didn’t recognize any winery names.
The waiter brought a pink wine. “Oh no,” said I. “I wanted a Zinfandel.” He said it was, and showed me the label. Since I’d last been in the USA so called “white Zinfandels” had become the big thing. I managed to get the single red Zinfandel they had, but I’m not sure I retrieved my reputation as someone who knew about wine.
3. England
I was in a up-market restaurant. The sommelier, on learning of my interest in wine, offered to show me the cellar. While there he told me of his biggest professional mistake. It was a night the restaurant was packed, they were short staffed and he was run off his feet. A businessman was dining with associates.
The businessman ordered Ch Cheval Blanc. The sommeliers mistake was not to show the businessman the bottle before decanting. When the decanter was taken to the table the businessman said he’d ordered a white wine. He’d assumed the ‘Blanc’ part of the name meant the wine was white.
4. Bordeaux
In 2022 we were on a Scenic River cruise of the Bordeaux region. At dinner on the first night were asked “red or white?” The white was Chardonnay, the red Gamay. I asked if I could have a Bordeaux wine and after a time the waiter brought another bottle. I could see as he walked the length of the dining room that it was not Bordeaux as it was a Burgundy shaped bottle. Finally
I got a Bordeaux red.
On the same cruise we visited St Emilion and on the way back the coach drove though the vineyards of Pomerol. Our guide proudly said that we were in the heart of Merlot country, and the world’s best Merlots came from the St Emilion region, so it was a surprise that the recommended red wine at dinner was a Merlot from the Languedoc. We chose a St Emilion from the wine list.
On the same trip the bartender argued that the word ‘Cremant’ on a bottle meant it was Champagne.
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