What to do in a restaurant when you are poured a small portion to check after ordering a wine?

This is a common scene happening everytime you order a  bottle of wine in a restaurant.

The waiter or sommelier comes and presents you the wine bottle, then opens and pour a small portion in your glass, and waits for you to check the wine, before they proceed to pour for your guests.

Everyone at the table stops the conversation they were engaged in. They go quiet and focus on you, to see what you are going to do?

You attempt to swirl the wine.

Then you smell the wine.

Then you taste the wine. 

Then you tell the waiter sommelier to go ahead and pour the wine for the guests.

Now everyone goes back to engaging in the discussion they were having earlier.

So what is the problem then?

To some people this not an issue. It is a simple affair. To many others, this poses a dillema, as they are not sure what exactly they should be doing.

This post is for those of you who do face this with a some confusion and stress.

The real reason the wine portion was poured for you, was to check if the wine is spoilt or has any fault.

So that is what the host is supposed to do, is to make sure the wine is not faulty before it is poured for their guests.

All is required to do is look at the wine for any hazziness and smell for freshness.

Like a spoilt milk, after smelling the wine, it would not require tasting.

As you would not taste a spoilt milk, same way you would not want to taste a spoilt wine.

The wine would either be stale and lacking of fruit, or it will have smell of vinegar, or wet Cardboard or newspaper. All of which are not pleasant.

The tasting part is not necessary.

Let's assume it is one of those days that you are entertaining some very important clients on behalf of your company.

As you are hosting your clients, naturally you would be presented the wine list to order.

An important point of note is that, you should not pass the wine list to your guest, especially if you are hosting and will be paying for the bill.

The reason is because your guests will feel pressured as they would not know what price range of wine to order.

So therefore you would be the person to order the wine.

Then the scenario starts again with the waiter or sommelier presenting you the wine and pour a tasting portion.

Now is the time for you to look smart, intelligent and confident by just doing the right steps.

1. Look at the glass of wine. Make sure nothing is floating in there, and the wine is not cloudy or hazy. 

2. Then smell the wine to make sure it smells fresh, with fruit flavors and like most fresh wines.

At this stage, if the wine color looks good, and the wine aromas are fruity and fresh, the condition is considered good.

Therefore you can skip the tasting part.

Put the glass down back on the table and tell the waiter or Sommelier the wine condition is good, and proceed to pour for your hosts.

This is likely going to put your guests and sommelier in awe, and may even render extra attention by the sommelier for your table.

So what are wines with bad conditions or spoillages that you are looking for?

Faults in wine to look out for:

1) The wine could be hazy in the color or cloudy.

2) They can smell of vinegar.

3) They can small of wet cardboard or newspaper.

4) They could smell as they the wine had been cooked over heat.

All these could be identified simply by looking at the color of the wine and smelling. No tasting is required.

If you encounter any of the faults above, then it is better to inform the waiter or the sommelier of your findings and ask for a new bottle of the same wine.

What if they presented the cork to you?

Check the cork to make sure there is no wine that seeped through the entire length of the  cork.

The part of the cork with the wine stain should only be the part that was inside the bottle touching the wine.

Hope that helped.

If you have further questions do leave a comment below and I would reply to you based on your question.