Here’s Why Sommeliers Ask You to Taste the Wine Before They Pour It — and Why It’s Total BS
The “try before you imbibe” practice needs a serious facelift
It was one of the most asked questions in my wine store and bar — why do wine professionals always ask customers to try the wine before they pour it?
Is it to see if you like it?
Is it to check for faults like cork taint? As one of my customers once said to me, how the heck should I know if a wine is faulty — isn’t that your job?
Yes, mate. Yes, it is.
After selling my little wine store and bar I’ve been on the receiving end of this never-ending charade of sniffing and sipping a bottle of wine before a server pours it for me more times than I care to count and I can tell you — it’s total BS.
Here’s why we Somms always ask you to taste and why the custom stinks.
We are asking you to check for two things that you probably don’t know much about
In very rare circumstances, a place may ask you to try the wine just to see if you like it. Whilst this is a lovely practice, I only know one place that does this and they have problems with people abusing that generosity…
