Wines in Restaurants

Deleted, because of Jenise.

There are three main problems for me about wine consumption in restaurants.

1) Drink/driving constraints. These limit my consumption to one or two small glasses unless we are staying overnight at the establishment. If driving, that means no more than a half bottle for the two of us with my wife drinking more than me. Often Muscadet, Beaujolais, Saumur-Champigny, Sancerre rouge ou blanc...

2) Even in the rare restaurants with a good choice, "grand vin" vintages tend to be too young for my palate. I have more mature bottles at home.

3) Stratospheric price marks-up in most restaurants.

The best restaurant IMO in a 50km radius, Le Pavé d'Auge at Beuvron-en-Auge, does have a well chosen wine list and additionally proposes wines by the glass at sensible prices selected by their excellent sommelier to go well with the chef's dishes. I often go for a glass or two of those. I have made some interesting discoveries there of estates from Languedoc, S.Rhône, Loire......previously unknown to me.

[David M. Bueker]

Restaurant pricing means I almost never order wine. Of course I tend to only eat out for foods that are not terribly wine friendly (e.g. Mexican), so it’s largely irrelevant.