A small rant about a frustrating wine list experience

Part of the wine list at dinner tonight:

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I can tolerate the large restaurant mark-ups. While I don’t love it, it’s often par for the course in most places. But listing the just the appellation of a wine with no producer information? That is just infuriating. [swearing.gif] [head-bang.gif]

where is Wolffer Estate located in France?

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It only seems to be some of them where the info is missing. Maybe it’s just a bunch of typos then?

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Yes, not all the wines are missing producers, just a few. My guess was that it’s either if a bunch of typos or intentional omissions to make each wine fit neatly into single lines. I did bring it up with our server (no somm proper at this establishment), he wasn’t sure why that was the case, but noted it down.

The whole thing made me curious to know if anyone just orders something like the BBM without knowing or caring which producer it’s from. Maybe some do just because it’s the most expensive white or something like that

World White sounds like a Garagiste mystery offer

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Ok pick one:
Six bottles of Cloudy Bay SB 2020
Or
One half of Yquem 2006

I think the markups are a bit different.

I’m guessing this was a steak house or expense account joint? A slap dash list that reaches to higher end stuff.

Was the red section led slap dash?

Some (a lot) of people just dont know much about wine in general and Euro wine in particular. Was the food any good? and what did you order from the list?.

Similar vibe to that. Definitely a place that caters to that type of crowd, but a little bit clubbier.

No missing producer info on the reds, but with the exception or Bordeaux, it was a pretty similar varied selection in line with the whites. They did dedicate an entire page to red Bordeaux, even separating them by appellations. Some more reasonably prices selections in that section as well.

Annoying but probably this. You can always ask, not much to be worked up about here.

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Come on Rodrigo, everyone knows how good Les Folatieres is, why do we need a name of the producer [berserker.gif] newhere neener

Food was solid, nothing exception, but a solid B/B+.

For this particular place it’s really all about the location. The restaurant is in the waterfront, so it made for a lovely atmosphere at the end of the day with the sun setting over the water.

Grabbed some cocktails to start and they had a 2010 Branaire-Ducru that was reasonably priced, so I grabbed that for our main course.

Bienvenues-Batard is the best Montrachet, who cares what producer it’s from [stirthepothal.gif] . Just keep the bottles coming! champagne.gif neener As long as someone else is paying

exactly. Whoever wrote the list doesn’t understand Burgundy. I see this not infrequently. More common is a lack of vintage info.

Yup,
my wife suggested we try a place that she had been to for lunch and enjoyed, wine list had no vintage info. I actually thought about that dinner (it was last week) when Rodrigo put up his OP.

What’s with all the "coeurs?

Whoever built that list also doesn’t understand the concept of building lists. Only one white that isn’t Chardonnay or Sauvignon Blanc? Really? Unless that’s the point?

Relocated Coloradan in the restaurant.

Wow, the cheapest wine on this snippet of the list is the Esperto Pinot Grigio at $90.

https://www.wine-searcher.com/find/esperto+pinot+grigio+venezie+italy/1/usa-ca-y

It’s a $10 bottle.

The other $90 white appears to be around ~$15 retail Macon:

https://www.wine-searcher.com/find/r+g+sallet+les+maranches+macon+uchizy+maconnais+burgundy+france/1/usa-ca-y

Seems like the lede has been buried here.

This absurd markup is by far the greater sin. $40 would be a reasonable price at restaurant markup that doesn’t gouge the customer, yet provides the restaurant with a hefty profit on a wine they buy wholesale well under $10 per bottle.

I take it this is a restaurant for customers who view a $500 bottle as an aperitif, so $90 is perhaps like pocket change in context. Still, it seems borderline insulting to pass off true simple quaffers as worth nearly a Benjamin.

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I didn’t check those, but $100 for a Cloudy Bay sauvignon ($25 retail) certainly caused my eyebrows to rise.