Ordering Wine in a Restaurant

"Hi, I’m Farley and I am going to talk to you about ordering wine in a restaurant which I know can be very intimidating but it does not have to be. I am going to go through the process with you and Emily is going to help me out today. The first thing that happens after you have chosen the bottle of wine that you like and feel free to ask for help if you have trouble deciding. You are actually going to place the order with your server. So I come up, would you like anything to drink tonight. Some wine perhaps or some cocktails? I think I would like a bottle of the Rex Goliath Pinot Noir. Okay. Let me go get the bottle and I am going to come back. At this point the customer should acknowledge you. I am going to show her the label. Here I have the Rex Goliath Pinot Noir. Actually it doesn’t have a vintage. Normally I would say the vintage at this point. Is this what you ordered? Yes. So once I have gotten that acknowledgment that is my go ahead to go ahead and open the bottle. Some times it is hard to get a customer’s attention but it is for their benefit to accept the bottle of wine. Especially if they are putting a good deal of money into it. I am going to open the bottle, take out the cork, take it off the cork screw and place it in front of her. At this point she is not going to do that much with the cork. If she wants to pick it up and feel the moisture level to make sure that it is not crumbling and make sure that it is not completely wet, that’s fine but she is not going to do is smell the cork because that does not tell you anything. That actually makes you like you don’t know what you are doing. Once she has done that, I am going to pour a small amount for her to taste. She is going to taste the wine. She can smell it, taste it and once she has determined that it has not turned gone bad that it is not corked and not turned to vinegar, she is going to look at me nod her approval and she is going to tell me that is fine. At this point, I am going to go around the table in a counter clockwise position pouring everyone else’s glass and I will pour her glass at the end because she is the one that ordered the wine. Then everyone can enjoy their dinner with their wine."