I thought I said don't start me...
1. Overfilling - heinous on many levels (see what I did there?)
a)They're just trying to push the wine. The only way they could get more in is by filling the glass with pins - thus creating the 'miniscus' effect. Piss off.
b)Chilled wine, once out of the ice-bucket(more on this later!) warms up pretty rapidly. If you overfill, I end up with hot wine, or I have to glug it down - part of the plan, I'm sure.
c) Red wine needs room in the glass - 50% of taste is smell.
d)It's ugly. Just because you have the aesthetic sense of a veruka, don't drag me into your private hell.
2. Ice-buckets - the clue is in the question. This should involve a bucket and some ice. A piece of terracotta downpipe is not an ice-bucket. The best it can hope to do is stop the already far too warm wine from warming up too fast. An ice-bucket brings the temperature down, stupid.
3. 'Trying the wine' - OK, in some bistro environments, and if you've ordered the house wine, it's acceptable to just leave the opened bottle at the table - but opened 'at' the table, mind you. I don't want the cooking wine topped up from the slops tray, thank you very much. Pouring it without even asking is very poor form. And will someone please tell these people that you try the wine to check that it's not 'off' - not to see if you like it. So when I say " I don't think that's quite right" don't then ask if there's something I'd like to try, like I'm the one who doesn't know his arse from his elbow. No - I want that wine, but in it's correct condition.
The other crime is mixing bottles. If I order another bottle of the same variety, don't just splosh it into our half-full glasses. And when I say," Can I try it first?" - don't answer with "But it's the same wine - you've tried it already." Good grief.
4. Prices - all this ameteurish-ness would be marginally more acceptable if they didn't put so much on to the wine. And why is it a percentage rather than a flat charge? I often end up drinking cheap wine - a deal worse than I have at home - because it galls me to pay 250% mark up. The other evening it was my birthday, so we managed a rare night out (4 kids). Because I wanted a nice bottle of wine, I was forced into a bottle of Cloudy Bay - a wine I know retails - retails , mind you - at £20 a bottle if you look around.
Their price? £49.
Bugger me.
