I owe an apology to Richard and Shelley for the selection of the red wine in the restaurant last night.
We had a really enjoyable night at our 'local' marred initially by The Old Girl breaking an elegant Champagne glass which was unfortunately half full of an excellent Champagne.
The food was great though and this restaurant has a fairly comprehensive wine list.
On a previous visit I noticed an Italian wine from Sicily and, intrigued I Googled it for information before the visit last night. 'Informed' and 'reliable' wine critics awarded this wine between 95 and 98 points out of 100. High praise that sets up high expectations. The wine is:
Frank Cornelissen MunJebel Rosso 2017
OK. Impressive packaging - threatening with the Mount Etna imagery and the name MunJebel I assumed was 'Devil Mountain' in Arabic but I discovered otherwise:
Munjebel is dialectal toponym for Mt. Etna, btw (akin the Sicilian Muncibeddu or the Italian Mongibello, meaning monte bello or beautiful mountain).Thanks Aunty Google.
I had intended to just try a glass, or a small tasting glass of this but unfortunately had talked it up a bit before ordering so that Richard, Shelley and Lynn also wanted a glass of it so it made more sense to buy a bottle.
Mistake.
A taste would have cost a small amount and is what I should have done. This restaurant prices wines in 4 stages: taste, glass, carafe (half bottle) and bottle:
17. Frank Cornelissen, ‘MunJebel’, Nerello Macalese, Etna, IT 15 | 30 | 73 | 145
The interpretation of this is 2017 vintage - the wine - various prices depending on size from tasting glass to bottle.
The wine was brought to the table for opening and was cold as it had been in the fridge. I commented on this and was told that the distributors recommended that for this type of wine. I should have been warned but, full of the high praises that I'd read said it would be OK. Having been in the industry for many years I know that serving a red wine cold masks its faults. The wine was ordinary and, applying a tasting score to it I struggled to get past 85 points out of a hundred. I felt that I'd let the team down with my recommendation.
It was only later, at home when discussing it with The Old Girl and her mentioning the cost of the wine that I realised the second mistake I'd made. Stupidly, when reading the tiny writing on the menu in dim lighting I thought that the bottle price was $73. WRONG! The bottle price was $145! This wine is no where near worth this and I feel really sorry as Richard and Shelley went halves on the bill.
I'll have to make it up to them next time we dine together.
6 comments:
To be honest, I spent most of the night worrying about the chardonnay at the apartment that had to be returned today because it had one of those three things that can go wrong with a cork. Damn corks! I actually really enjoyed the red wine, though I did punch the maître d' as we left for putting the white wine in the fridge too. I hope I was right to do this. I was also a little disappointed later, back at the apartment, when Peter put on a version of Autumn Leaves but didn't know what key it was in. I was proud of Shelley for not breaking any glasses, though she was a bit overly friendly with the young taxi driver on the way home. Hey, thanks Lynn and The Wine Guy for a really fun and stimulating evening. I couldn't see the menu either. I think I need new glasses.
An update.
I've studied the photos of the labels from last night.
On the same bottle, one label says 2107 and the other 2018.
I'm convinced that the wine we paid for was not the one we drank.
The restaurant was closed when I checked this afternoon but The wine Guy will go there this evening to investigate.
Thanks Robert, well spotted.
2017 it is.
A further update.
I went to see the manager of the restaurant tonight and told him of my concerns at the mislabelling and that the wine we bought wasn't what was promised.
After resisting and denying responsibility at first he realised that I wasn't going to go away and I demanded compensation. I got what I asked for - $70 being the difference between what we paid - $145 and the price of the lesser wine - $75. I asked for it in the form of a credit for Lynn to use and got a $70 gift voucher. I'm happy.
I'll get $35 worth of wine to Richard as soon as I can.
Given the quality of wines he's used to this could be a dozen bottles.
I don't need any wine. Give the voucher to Lynn. Please do this. I'm happy because I know the three things that can go wrong with a wine cork.
"I know the three things that can go wrong with a wine cork."
1. It won't come out
2. It breaks in half inside the neck of the bottle
3. You don't have a corkscrew
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