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When the waiter pours you a sample of the wine before serving the whole table, it's not a taste test.
- There's a certain etiquette that diners should follow when ordering a bottle of wine at a restaurant.
- Rules that commonly get broken include sipping the wine when you should be smelling it, and sending a bottle back simply because you don't like it.
- We talked to a sommelier to get his tips for ordering wine for the table.
Ordering wine can be intimidating. It's a complex drink with a lot of history, and there are certain rules surrounding it that shouldn't be broken, particularly when it comes to ordering it at a restaurant.
While attending Wine Riot, an event that aims to take the pretentiousness out of wine culture, I chatted with sommelier Jason Tesauro, who's also known as The Modern Gentleman.
I had so many questions: when the waiter pours a sample into your glass, are you supposed to sip it? If you don't like it, can you ask to return it? And, luckily, Tesauro had the answers.