Monday, October 29, 2012

Sommelier Service Question:


Sommelier Service Question:
For my past birthday, my wife and I went to Las Vegas and she took me to dinner at a very nice hotel restaurant.

We brought along a bottle of Sea Smoke Ten to enjoy with our meal. But before we went to the restaurant, as I always do, I called ahead and asked about corkage fees etc. I was told that the wine could not be on their wine list and that it had to be approved ahead of time. In addition the corkage fee was $50.

I asked for it to be approved and they connected me with their Sommelier. I informed him of the wine and he said it is not on their list and it would be fine to bring to dinner.

We arrived at dinner; the Sommelier came over to our table, opened our wine and poured a glass for each of us. That was the last time we saw him. There were times during the dinner that our glasses were empty and wanted a refill, and we waited- no one came by. So I ended up refilling our glasses the entire dinner.

As a Certified Sommelier myself, I found this appalling. A $50 fee for opening our wine, the least that he could have done would be to refill our wine glasses. Mind you, we had an early seating (5:30) and the restaurant was not even ½ full.

Do you think I am over reacting? What do you expect from a Sommelier at a 5 star restaurant?

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