Restaurant Wine Etiquette 101

When I eat out at a restaurant with family or friends, I nearly always find myself choosing – and ordering – the wine for the table.

Sometimes, I order because my dinner companions know how much I enjoy this ritual.  But mostly my friends and family jump to hand me the task because they are relieved not to have to do it themselves. The fact is that many people find a restaurant’s wine list to be intimidating.  It shouldn’t be.  Wine should enhance the enjoyment of a special meal in a restaurant; it should not be a source of stress.  So how does one move from intimidation to confidence?

It’s not as hard as you might think. With just six pointers, I can help you take the mystique out of mastering the wine and get on back on the road to enjoying your entire restaurant experience.  Let’s begin: 

Price matters. The mark up on wine varies greatly from restaurant to restaurant. Let me hasten to add that a restaurant is entitled to a fair profit. The restaurant incurs costs in choosing and storing wine, and the restaurant must train servers and provide (and clean) expensive glassware. However, there’s a difference between a reasonable profit and highway robbery!  With that in mind, my rule of thumb is that a reasonable price for a wine in a restaurant is two to two and half times retail.  Thus, a wine that retails for $10 should be about $20 or $25 in a restaurant.  That allows the restaurant to recover its costs and still make a profit.  As wines grow in retail prices, the mark up should shrink, with higher end wines bringing no more than a 100 percent markup.  The rationale behind this is that the fixed cost of servers and stemware doesn’t increase as the wine gets more expensive.  Here’s a tip:  before choosing a restaurant, go online and look at the wine list.  If the mark up is more than about 3 times retail, choose somewhere else, bring your own (see below) or stick to wine by the glass.

Pass the task.  If you don’t feel comfortable pairing wine and food, don’t.  Use the expert with the pad and pen standing by your table.  If ordering a bottle for the table, ask each person who intends to share the wine what he or she plans to order for an entrée.  Then ask the server to choose something that pairs as well as possible with the various entrees and that will fit within a certain price range.  If you want to be discreet, simply point to a number on the wine list and say “I’m looking for something in this price range.”  The server can then makes suggestions without ever mentioning the delicate issue of cost.

Bring your own.  Many people don’t know that most restaurants will allow you to bring your own wine.  It’s perfectly acceptable and can save your budget.  To make up for the loss of revenue, however, most restaurants will charge you a “corkage fee”—a fee for opening and serving your wine and for providing the glassware.  Before you bring your own wine, call ahead to find out the restaurant’s corkage policy. A fee of $10-15 (or $20 in a higher-end restaurant with more expensive glassware) is perfectly reasonable.  The only caution here is that it is considered very bad form to bring a wine that the restaurant carries on its wine list.  To avoid breaking this rule, you can often check the restaurant’s wine list on-line or call ahead.  Bringing a small production or unusual wine also reduces the risk.

Enjoy the show.  Whether you order from the wine list or bring your own, the wine service will proceed according to a very careful ritual.  There are good reasons for this process, but it often provokes panic in the diner who isn’t entirely familiar with the rules.  Here’s how it goes:  Once you’ve chosen your wine, the server will bring the bottle to you and show you the label.  The point of that is to make sure you’re getting the wine you were promised.  When you check the label, be sure to confirm that it is the correct vintage year.  Once you’ve expressed your approval, the server will open the bottle and hand you the cork.  At this point, you really only need to check that the cork hasn’t crumbled to dust (which could indicate a taste-shattering flaw called “cork taint”). As long as the cork is reasonably firm and intact, go to the next step, when the server will pour you a small amount of wine.  At this point, you simply swirl the wine a little, sniff it, and if it doesn’t smell like vinegar (or something worse), take a small sip.  It doesn’t need to be a big production.  You are just making sure the wine has not gone bad.  If it has gone bad, it will be very obvious; you will smell or taste something extremely unpleasant, like wet cardboard, musty socks or excessive barnyard flavors.  If you sense that the wine has gone bad, tell the server.  He or she will take a small taste to confirm.  If the wine is indeed bad, the restaurant will replace the bottle (or if you brought your own, recommend a replacement from the restaurant’s wine list).  Once you have approved the bottle with a nod or comment to the server, the server will pour wine for the rest of the table, serving you last.  (As the person who chose the wine, you are treated as the “host”.)  The server should not pour any glass more than half full – that is to assure sufficient space for each person to be able to swirl and sniff the wine’s aromas.  If an inexperienced server starts to overfill your glass, do not hesitate to ask that it only be filled halfway.

  And now for the tip.  In general, you should tip on the wine in the same way you tip on the food – 15-20 percent, depending upon the level of service you experience.  (Hopefully, the server will share with the dish washer, who often has to wash and polish the delicate stemware by hand.)

Addressing the leftovers.  This is frequently not a problem, but on the off-chance you do have any leftover wine, the question arises, “Can I take it home?”  In Oregon (state laws vary), if you had the wine with a meal – and assuming you drank only a small amount and are not impaired – you may request that the server put the cork back in the bottle, and then you may take it home with you.  You should put it in the trunk or otherwise out of reach of the front seat.  If for some reason you are pulled over by a law enforcement officer, be prepared to show your meal receipt to prove that you did eat dinner.  I love this law, because I can drink responsibly (i.e., just one glass) and know that the rest of the wine won’t go to waste.  And if I’m taking home a clamshell with the remains of my dinner, I can enjoy it all over again with the same wine a night or two later.

So, there you are.  The wine list is not your enemy, and your server is your friend. Proceed boldly and order with confidence!