Wine Complaint
The other day we had a complaint about wine service in one of our hotels, to be honest this is quite rare but I rang the customer to find out what had happened. He told me that the sommelier was opening bottles of wine and then taking and drinking some of the wine, and that it was a disgraceful practice that he had never see anywhere in the world and that he had eaten for years in the best restaurants in the world (you know the type).
So I wearily went on to explain that in most restaurants that take wine service seriously this is standard practice and it’s a courtesy paid from one customer to the next to allow the sommelier to taste the wines so that he can accurately describe them in the future. I tactfully pointed out that it does go on but maybe he had never seen it before.
He was having none of it. So I offered he come back to the bar some time for a free drink, not as an apology for our operating procedure but as a sign of good will. But he wanted more (you know the type).
Then the killing blow came he said:
“Even the champagne expert on Michel Roux’s programme does not do that!”
So I asked:
“Is that the bald headed Englishman?”
“Yes”
“Thats me”
…..pause…..
“Well good for you then!”
Hangs up.
What a magical moment!
