David Lynch, sommelier and Bon Appetit writer, suggests that you should send back a wine if you don’t like what you ordered in a restaurant where a sommelier helped you decide, even if there is nothing wrong with it. For me, this sounds very American, in the spirit of buying and returning clothes just because you changed your mind and don’t like the shirt – commonplace in the US but not elsewhere.
My first reaction is that while a store can presumably sell that shirt, the restaurant will not be able to sell the wine now that the cork is out.
But Lynch’s article has me thinking about the right and wrong of this. Still musing – and interested in hearing other people’s thoughts on trying this in Europe.
This American would never do that. If I ask for the sommelier’s recommendation and accept it, then don’t like the wine (assuming it’s not corked or otherwise off), I would tell him or her so, but accept my decision. If the sommelier wants to take it upon himself or herself to take away the bottle and bring me something else, I would also accept that.