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WINE ADVICE
Don't save the good wine till last
Don't be intimidated and let bad wine spoil a good meal,
advises Mary Dowey
An evening out with a bite to eat and a few glasses of wine. . .
Relaxing, did you say? Grrrrr! The whole topic of wine in Irish
restaurants drives me into such a state of agitation that I
usually need a drink to calm me down. Why are house wines
frequently so poisonous? Wine lists so sloppily written? Wine
waiters so lacking in basic knowledge? Prices so high?
Not that this miserable state of affairs is a purely Irish
phenomenon. In last month's issue of the British wine magazine
De canter, restaurant critic Brian St Pierre writes: "The house
wines offered by most restaurants in this country are a
disgrace,
stupefyingly dull and characterless plonk that barely qualifies as
supermarket fodder." What dark forces are at work, giving so
many wine drinkers a raw deal?
Greed, in a word. The impulse to offset high costs in the kitchen
against easy profits from wine is the only plausible explanation
for shoddy quality and shocking prices - unless you prefer to pin
these on the same, lazy, sure-it'll-do-grand attitude that causes
the other problems of patchy information and poor service. The
really strange thing is that this approach should persist so widely
at a time when customers know more about wine than ever
before. How are we to cope? What survival skills come in handy
as we pick our way through the minefield?
First - strange though it may sound after such a warlike
introduction - it's important for restaurant patrons to have a
sense of fair play. There's no point in getting all steamed up
because your favourite £5.99 supermarket bargain is on the list
at £10.99. That's a reasonable mark-up. Restaurants serving
wine incur various overheads - waiters, glasses, storage
(although there is much less of this now than in the good old
days of extensive restaurant cellars).
As a rule of thumb, expect to pay about twice the usual retail
price. Much less, and you may have hit a bargain. Much more,
and you may feel seriously ripped off. If more punters accepted
the double-the-price principle, restaurateurs might feel less
compelled to go hunting out wines that their customers have
never heard of - purely to avoid confrontations about price.
House wines are a danger zone, as I've said - except in
restaurants which have taken the trouble to source good ones
and consequently see no shame in stating clearly what they are.
Name of the wine, name of the region, name of the producer,
vintage - those are the four essential nuggets of information
that should be provided about every single wine on every wine
list.
You'd be amazed how often even the grandest establishments
miss out some of the details - and not always accidentally, alas.
There's a widespread tendency to list certain French wines which
sell on the strength of their lofty reputation - Chablis, Sancerre,
Chateauneuf-du-Pape and such like - with no mention of their
producer because his reputation is anything but lofty. Be
suspicious. Fancy-sounding bottles from an unidentified source
can turn out to be an expensive disaster.
So where does the safe ground lie? Generally speaking, unless
you're in a restaurant well known for the reliability of its wines
and the knowledge of its staff (and yes, there are some), it's
probably wise to stay around the lower-to-middle price zone.
Plenty of wine fanatics do this, preferring to drink their luxury
bottles at home.
Since few restaurants now have the room or the resources to age
their wines, it's far better to pick something modest which is
meant to be drunk young than commit infanticide on an
expensive wine that's nowhere near maturity. The New World
wins for easy-drinking, youthful wines. And the fact they come
from countries with more reliable sunshine than many parts of
Europe means you don't have to worry unduly about the vintage.
But there are also good buys from the south of France, the heel
and toe of Italy, Spain, Portugal. . . places where new
winemaking techniques and a warm climate are together
producing rich flavours at low prices.
Be adventurous about the style of wine you choose, I'd suggest,
instead of splashing out financially. Rather than pick
Chardonnay (which you've probably overdosed on long ago), why
not try Riesling or Semillon or Jurancon? Instead of Cabernet,
why not Grenache or Tempranillo, Malbec or Zinfandel? A
well-written wine list should provide a brief description of each
wine, to help you choose. If it doesn't, ask. And don't settle for
a vague mumble, like "it's very nice".
What if you don't like the wine you've ordered? If it smells
musty (like mould or damp cardboard) and tastes even mustier,
it may well be "corked" - contaminated by the nasty bacteria
that live in about 5 per cent of wine corks. Ask the wine waiter
for an opinion, and if your suspicion is confirmed you are
perfectly entitled to another bottle. But remember that some
wines have slightly off-putting aromas as part of their character -
smelling of sweaty saddles, old socks, farmyards, damp
undergrowth, even vomit. These don't necessarily mean there's
anything wrong with them - so tread warily and be diplomatic.
Now a plea. If we all protest together, is there any chance we
might dissuade wine waiters in swanky establishments from
keeping the bottle away from the table? The problem about this
fussy practice is that they either cause numerous interruptions
topping up the glasses (usually far too fast) or forget to come
back, and leave you thirsty. I always like to have a bottle within
reach. Doesn't everyone?
TABLE TALK
Beware of ice buckets: White wines are often served too cold, so
they taste sharper and thinner than they should.
House wine wisdom: With so many inexpensive but tasty wines
available now, there's no excuse for rubbish. If it's nasty,
complain after the first sip.
Very fine wines can be very good value: Some restaurateurs with
an interest in wine take pride in offering gems at low mark-ups -
but you need to be aware of current retail prices to recognise
them.
Corked wines are drunk too often: mainly out of uncertainty - if
you do sniff a suspicious whiff, don't be afraid to say so.
The two-thirds full rule: Waiters have a great habit of filling
glasses almost to the brim. Don't let them: the aromas that
provide half the pleasure need a generous space in which to
gather.
recieved by mail from
maxman@ireland.com
source:
http://www.ireland.com
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