What gives sommeliers ulcers or high blood ressure

I read that as well. I also read somewhere that a sommelier was serving soccer players' wives who demanded Chrystal, not because they liked it but because it is fashionable and expensive. He served them one bottle and then re-filled it with cheap stuff for their subsequent orders. Graham

Perhaps I am just overly sensitive about this, but I find that story highly offensive. How exactly did the sommelier conclude that none of the party liked the Cristal? What he did smacks of fraud and nothing more. Did he also discount their bill to reflect the fact that he was serving them cheap stuff? If not, I would cast a jaundiced eye on his motives, too. Roederer, the house that makes Cristal, got into hot water a while ago for openly criticizing the hip-hop stars who routinely showed bottles of Cristal, label prominent, in their music videos. Would these same people also refuse sales of First Growth Bordeaux to those East Asian millionaires who drink it diluted with soda?

This is one of the very few cases I've seen where the term "wine snob" seems appropriate. How the patron chooses to enjoy wine seems to me to be neither here nor there in a purely commercial transaction.

Curmudgeonly yours, Mark Lipton

I agree, it was fraud!!!!!!! I just reported it! It is also a case of snobbery, just as the OP's tale from Decanter was! Graham

A good point, the answer wasn't in evidence in the story. But if the claim was accurate, it would not be the first time people demanded a wine (or that wine) for such reasons. My wine-merchant friends report calls for the "most prestigious bottle of [whatever type] that you have on hand, Price No Object." They accommodate these requests well, with wines prestigious and famous and expensive. For customers who want to talk about it a little, and listen to suggestions, and are less concerned with brand recognition, these merchants often have other wines, comparable in the glass and MUCH less expensive. (That in a nutshell is why some people learn about wine.)

I agree there's fraud if the somm. passed off a cheaper product. That issue is distinct from the point above.

(There's a classic old short story -- wish I had the reference handy. Skilled and cultured career butler and other servants work for an ostentatious, difficult employer who shows off his expensive wines at dinner parties. Finally in the dénouement, the household staff give notice, and the butler calmly explains how the staff had all along been drinking the exquisite contents from the bottles, which the butler had been decanting, substituting cheap wines and listening to the praise these evoked from the unsuspecting owner and guests, who enjoyed what they were served and never noticed the difference.)

I agree, but I can‘t help regretting the waste!

It also puts in perspective the argument that price alone should be the determining factor in formally classifying a wine — an argument which raged in Decanter‘s letter columns after Figeac was refused promotion to PGCC ”A• on price grounds alone.

Tim Hartley

Graham, I certainly hope that I didn't leave you with the impression that _you_ had in any way offended me. I don't shoot the messenger, so neither am I in any way put out by Decanter reporting the story. Rather, I'm just offended by the sommelier's attitude and behavior, which to me smacks of snobbery and lack of integrity and professionalism.

Mark Lipton

No, you didn't!

To call this man a sommelier is a bit of a stretch, I think. He struck me as being more of a barman and that occupation is rife with fraudulent activity at all levels from fiddling at the cash register to serving cheap scotch as Chivas. My son supplies and installs electronic and computer systems and software to bars and nightclubs and he has told me of the enormous amount of cash that somehow misses the books.

Graham

During the last ignauguration here in Washington, DC, the Texas ladies drink of choice was "Merlot and 7-Up". I pour a decent merlot in my restaurant, so this was a $15 drink. OK. I have been asked to pour Dom Perignon into orange juice. OK. I have served people Marquis de Laguiche Le Montrachet with the wife spooning ice cubes into it all night. OK. I was asked recently if I would decant a bottle of Turley Cellars Old Vines Zinfandel through a coffee filter and I said "WHY?". The guy said, "Because I do that at home". Um, I have decanters and filters, that should suffice. I have a friend who is a well known winemaker in Australia. On his last visit to China, his very high end Shiraz was served with Coca-Cola. I have another friend who is a diplomat in Hong Kong. He was at a reception where they were serving red wine and Coke. He asked the server for straight red wine and was given a glass of Chateau Lafite-Rothschild 1990 (the wine being served minus the Coke). Yes, we see lots of funny things.

Mark Slater Chef Sommerlier, Michel Richard Citronelle Washington, DC

Well that's rather sad, but I'm sure it happens. There is no way to control how people spend their money. But I'm beginning to understand why DRC wines and 1st growth Bordeaux wines are priced the way they are.

Jim Mehl

What was your first clue? :)

Yeah...to keep them out of the hands of the wrong people! If there were only a way to let the vintners know we're the right people... maybe they'd give us a much-deserved break. (As if! LOL.)

It's an unfortunate spin-off of "The customer is always right." Even if they're not.

Btw, speaking of coffee filters, here's a tip for the tequila drinker who can't afford high end añejos. Run your cheap tequila through a Brita water filter system. Hey, don't shoot! I didn't come up with this! A guy at my hotel in Mexico did, and for some reason the filter vastly improved the flavor of his cheap mixtos. It'll probably work with reposados, too.

Fortunately for me, I don't own a Brita system. Guess I'm resigned to high end reposados and añejos. ;)

JJ