Would you have known?

We have a friend who thinks he knows about everything
that sounds like our friend with the bottle of terrible Margaux, EMM

We would have known the wine wasn’t what we ordered because the label would have told us. Whenever we order a bottle the waiter shows us the bottle before pouring the first glass out.
Notice I wrote waiter! We don’t often dine in top class restaurants that have a sommelier. I have eaten in Hawksmoor a few times though and I’m sure we went through the usual procedure.
I’d love to have tried a glass of the expensive stuff just to see if I have been missing out all these years. I expect I never will and maybe that’s a good thing. What you’ve never had you never miss.
I agree the price seems, to me, obscene. How much food could you buy for a food bank with £4500?
However it’s all relative, someone with nothing would think a fish and chip supper was a luxury.

How can anyone anywhere ever justifying spending £4,500 for a bottle of wine? If you can afford to put that much money down someone’s throat then let it be medication to improve or save someone’s life. It makes my blood boil it really does

Craftycat. You reminded me: About errr, 40 years ago (??) we had friends who owned a well-known chain of wine-stores that he had built up himself. He called round to pick up his daughter one day and my husband was chatting to him about how he selected the wines. The next thing I saw was my husband busying himself with a load of different bottles of his new home-made wine hobby, giving glasses of Parsnip wine, Dandelion wine, Revolting wine, Washing-up water wine, etc to this man who bought wine for his own top brand famous chain of Wine Stores!
He was such a lovely guy he never said anything unkind or even grimaced! What a gent!

We have a friend who thinks he knows about everything, we used to buy whisky from a shop where you took your own container, we then decanted it into a recognised whisky bottle and he never knew the difference.
Great place, they sold wine like this, priced per bottle and they weren't too fussy about the size of the bottle! Not in the UK though, naturally.

I used to enjoy wine with a meal and could recognise the "usual" ones, from among the red wines of France but we had French friends who were very proud of their wines and taught us about them. I learned it wasn't snobbery but a lot more like farming for a good crop, right soil, age of vine, weather, which side of the hill, no bugs, type of vat etc. As I come from a farming background it appealed to me. We never got drunk in France with our French friends either because we would sit around the table for so long, children too, (well, they would get down and play) and chat and every so often to our incredulity Madame would bring out another course... but as with the wine, we didn't over-eat either.
Those were the days she said yearningly. Ah me, if only I had stayed in France! But that's another thread!

I have been a no alcohol drinker (Salvation Army) for nearly 25 years now. I love it! Every time I think of why I don't drink I praise the Lord!

I never miss alcohol now I don't have it. I love nice water and adore milk. I can even taste different waters (well, sometimes!) and milk varies a lot especially throughout the year. It's also so much cheaper when you don't drink! Who knows? One day I might save £4,500!

I wondered myself about publicity.
If the business men come forward all well and good .
If not... a very clever marketing ploy.

Aaahhhhh Nonnie what an interesting post

I always drink cheap Champagne as I don't want to get used to the good stuff and not be able to afford it. But when my daughter won a bottle of Lauent Perrier vintage Champers and shared it, it was heavenly. Likewise the Bollinger my son bought me for my sixtieth.

If I ever win the lottery (which I do not buy tickets for) I will have the good stuff coming out of my taps.

I'm another one who always reads the label and I'm pretty sure that anyone paying £200 (I read is was £260) would also have read the label. So either they knew and drank it anyway or the whole thing is, imo, just an advertising gimmick.

Really pleased that the restaurant told the employee 'chin up, mistakes happen', what a wonderful supportive place to work!

I just don't get the vast amounts paid for wine, no matter how good it tastes, it is just a drink, it only gives a few seconds of pleasure, and will it make a difference to your life, or how you feel the next day? Not a jot!

Now if I were to to spend £260 on a classic dress (not these days!) it would give me pleasure for 20 years, assuming the weight held stead!

there is such a mark-up on wines in restaurants that neither bottle would have cost that much in fact or be worth that amount - even a £5 bottle of 'plonk' could set you back more than £30.

We were at a 'blind' wine tasting organised by a friend once and he had a very old bottle of Margaux; we had to guess various things including price. We all thought it tasted mousy - we thought it was corked. He was upset, said it was fine and worth a lot of money.

I'm even more of a heathen, leyla - give me a beer any day. How can any wine possibly be worth over £2,000 a bottle? Could many of us tell the difference?
I know what my DH would say if he was still alive - "it all ends up being p!*($d anyway! "

On holiday in Hong Kong at a high class restaurant in Victoria .My husband had gone to the bathroom and businesses man came over to me and said we are not drinking tonight we are with our familes would you like this
It was a bottle of champagne it was not untill they had gone that i looked at the label it was a bottle of Dom Perigion champagne.My husband face when he saw it wasa picture especially as i told him i ordered it for our last day i think he was going to faint
Whoever they were they must have dined there regularly because the waiters were so attentive to us all night.I must omit the champagne was a beautiful taste

I was glad to hear that the waiter who served them was not sacked or even given much of a dressing down as they said ' mistakes happen'.
If I'm honest would I like to taste that wine?- yes. We have a friend who swerves 'good' wine when we go round - not THAT good mind you but more than we usually pay for ours. It is sometimes REALLY good. Mind you he likes the wine we give him when he comes here too & it is probably half the price of his.

Yes Aldi is my go to wine cellar.

Bottle of white California plonk from ASDA @ slightly over a fiver.

That'll do!

kittylester Grapevine Merlot by any chance? Thats my favourite Aldi one right now!

The most costly wine I have had was £90. Can’t say I noticed it was any different to the £5 stuff I usually buy.
I am sure there’s an emperors new clothes thing that goes on with expensive things, whether wine or anything else.

Well I’ve been to many wine tasting events and got to know two MW quite well - they’ve never used language like that and were just wanting to enhance people’s enjoyment and knowledge of wine at all price levels.

I have to disagree, * maxdecatt*. I have been to a few wine tastings and when you are taught what to look out for you really can begin to understand the complexity of a good wine, rather like a good cheese.

All the "mystique" about wine is just rubbish dreamt up by the "experts" and advertising agencies.. Every week you read of "experts" raving about "the lingereing" taste of tarmac, hedgerows, orchards, petroleum and God knows what else.... old socks maybe? Amazing that so often they carry on with their ludicrous comments and fail to mention grapes at all. An alien reading their drivel would believe that wine is made of anything but grape juice. One memorable comment from an "expert" was that she likened this "fine and noble wine" to the "sleek prow of a submarine breaking the surface". Please! What drugs is she on? Last week it was revealed that a labotarotory had created copies of some of the supposedly finest wines from chemicals (not a grape in sight) ....blind tastings by "experts" chose the synthetic products and rejected the actual wines. So you see, all utter nonesense to take money off the gullible. Buy what you like and never more than £5 or £6. Even then the wine in the bottle is costing about 30p. The rest of the money is the bottle, label, vineyard and retailers profits.

I certainly wouldn't know. But then wine and I don't agree anyway.

I read that the restaurant said on Twitter - “To the customer who accidentally got given a bottle of Chateau le Pin Pomerol 2001, which is £4500 on our menu, last night - hope you enjoyed your evening! To the member of staff who accidentally gave it away, chin up! One-off mistakes happen and we love you anyway.”

Glad the staff member is OK. An honest mistake.

?

There was a (jokey) tweet posted saying they were the ones who had the wine and it was better when they’d added the lemonade and ice cubes. ?