Your Server's First Wine Adventure

You sit down at a table at a restaurant and persuse the menu and the wine list. After a few minutes, you choose your food for the evening and a bottle of wine to share that goes with the food. Upon ordering the bottle, you can see that look in your server's eyes. She wonders what I have just asked for and how it is that she is going to get it served.

You see, it's the first time any of her guests have ever ordered a bottle of wine. And, she doesn't know what to do. And, then to make matters worse, there is a chance she is reading this. But, then again, that's not all bad because some stories end better than others.

In this particular case, she took one of the alternatives available to her. She approached a manager or beverage manager, I'm not sure which, for help. This manager came to the table and showed our hero how to open and serve the wine. Well, sort of.

This manager says she is going to hold training for the staff so that they can all see the right way to do wine service. The problem, however, is that she really doesn't know herself, but she came somewhat close.

She did present the bottle. Not quite properly, but not too badly. When done properly, in addition to showing the label, it is proper to announce the wine, including vintage. That way, the guest doesn't have to go searching for the year that might be in fairly small font. Then it was time to cut the foil. While it is easiest to turn the bottle and to cut at the uppermost indentation in the bottle, that is not proper. The bottle is to be held with label facing the guest who ordered. With a cut in each direction, the foil can be removed and placed into the server's pocket.

The manager correctly showed how to pour a small taste for the person who ordered. She did not first observe herself if the wine was tainted, however. She pointed out that the bottle should be held by the punt -- the dimple at the bottom of the bottle. Now, what is our poor server going to do the first time a guest orders a bottle of Riesling since Riesling traditionally does not have a punt? Holding by the punt is fine, but neither required nor important.

Finally, our manager gave us our first pours. Way up into the top half of the smallish glasses. Wait! We've ordered the bottle. We don't need massive pours. In fact, for the wine to properly breathe, the glass should never be filled more than one-third of the way. 

So, what did we do? Eash time our server came back to the table to check on us, we taught her a little more about wine service. Unlike her manager, she now knows the proper level to which to pour the wine and she knows who to serve first, even in a large crowd.

Who gets served first and last? The oldest lady at the table is traditionally served first and the guest who ordered the wine last. Our server was eager to learn and now she knows. Her manager probably doesn't.