I expect a generous portion, preferably in a good sized glass when I order wine by the glass which I seldom do. That's only fair considering the hugh mark up. Then again you can't always be sure what they pour you is any good, not knowing how long the bottle has been open and sitting around.

Excellent point, and a whole other subject for discussion. Which reminds me of Sam's freaky post about draft wine.

We were at a decent fed hill place and ordered a bottle of wine for four of us (school night and all). The waitress poured two full to the brim glasses and emptied the wine bottle. We were a little peeved, but should we have tried to decant the wine from one glass to another?

that has to be are pet peev for Baltimore. Waiters and Waitress's do not know how to pour wine. Very little in each glass. Fine or not so fine they do not have a clue

I noticed that if you get a prix fixe menu dinner with wine pairings, the wines that come out are not even halfway filled and this has happened to me more than once at different places as well. Not to sound greedy either but is that a standard practice that I am not aware of?

At the risk of sounding like the Petulant Child...

It's really "great" to see more stuff from the Chicago Tribune - as though the Sun's photogs aren't capable of supplying stock imagery.

That said, your husband should have said something if he was concerned about the pour. If he had questions about his food, I presume he would ask, so he should ask about the wine.

You are paying for it, afterall.

Of he's concerned about "seeming greedy" then try asking about their serving size for the wine and if this glass is correct. I think many restaurants use a 5oz (???) serving.

When we went to Cinghiale recently I noticed that the servers poured themselves a taste from the bottle before serving. Does anyplace else do this? A great benefit for the wait staff, but I wonder how necessary it is for the customers.

I am still miffed over the server at Corks who ran off with our bottle with half a glass of wine in it. We haven't been back since that happened.

Cinghiale has the option of 3 oz or 6 oz pours. When we dined there, Sam ordered a 6 oz, and I ordered a 3 oz, but we got our wine, both glasses were equally full (which looked like at least 6 oz to us)! Here's to heavy-handed bartenders :)

Yeah, you should have seen the look on our waitress' face when she saw amie's glass.

"That's the biggest three ounce pour I've ever seen," she said.

Petit Louis did the same 'server' pour from my $40.00 bottle. Since I had been given a free taste I didn't say anything, figuring the house was getting its own back. I did think it odd and have never seen the practice before. On a rather more expensive bottle than I can buy, it seems to me the house it getting an extra $10 or so more out of its patrons. I'm sure Mr. Forman will have some blather about how its correct and sophisticated. Rather like ironing the table clothes in the middle of the dinning. Yea, right.

When I was at Cinghiale in December, our waitress poured a very tiny amount into a glass, smelled it, but didn't drink it (at least not in front of us). While I found it a bit pretentious, the amount was so tiny that I didn't feel like I was getting ripped off.

I believe the theory behind the practice (that sounds funny) is that the server is supposed to detect corked wine before offending the patron's sensibilities with it. Personally, if my server ever detects a corked wine, I want to taste it (or at least smell it) so I know what corked wine tastes/smells like.

Believe me, you will have no doubt when it happens. I was surprised at how obvious and unpleasant it is.

The server pour at Petit Louis is no where near a regular glass of wine. I can understand the dislike of the practice, but it is not as if the server is getting a super big gulp du vin.

Those pours in the picture look pretty solid. I think the sweet spot is around 40-60% full. I usually go for full bottles knowing I can take the rest with me in our great state - now that was some legislation I could get behind! Did the servers at least ask first before helping themselves? I suppose it would be a nice service if it was optional, but only if it was optional.

Perhaps I explained myself poorly. The taste was a couple of sips and generated a $40 purchase versus my planned $20 buy so its good and effective marketing.

The server pour was rather more than a splash in the glass (at least as much as was then poured into my glass for smell and tasting) and then nothing was done with it. Had the server smelled or even tasted it I would have had a better understanding of what was going on. But no, a measure was poured and after the smell and taste of my own initial pour, the other glass was taken away. Nothing was said. (My apologies to Mr. Foreman for mis-spelling his name, in the initial post.)

Age old peeve, Ok, you charge me up to 4x the price of a bottle of wine and then take a sip - Hmm - I dont think so ......

The 'server pour' has been used at some reputable places to make sure that the server knows your wine is up to standard (this, of course, assumes you're dealing with a server that could tell the difference which isn't usually the case).

As to the comment with regard about servers not really knowing how to pour wine, for the most part I'd agree, and decanting wine, you've a better chance of seeing pigs fly.

As to wine by the glass; it's not unreasonable to expect a 5-6 ounce pour, especially given the markup on beer, wine, and liquor.

JayC is correct that the stanard glass of wine is a 5 oz pour. The restaurant that I currently work at has a very simple way to keep this consistent. At the beginning of a shift, someone measures out 5 oz of water and then transfers it to a wine glass. For the rest of the evening servers simply pour glasses of wine next to the glass of water.

As for the those who feel the "server pour" a la Petit Louis is over the top, wait until you come across a master sommelier who has a jewel encrusted goblet on a chain around their neck for tasting...This happened to my wife and I while on vacation out west. Talk about pretentious!

If you would like your wine decanted then just ask. This isn't a standard because 1) most wines don't need it, and 2) most restaurants don't have enough decanters to go around.

Another disturbing trend in Vulgaria. Quite astonishing. When I want a servant to evaluate my wine, I will board my time machine and head toward some place where Canadians rule the world and Bob's your uncle, every wine goes well with bacon and ice hockey. Indeed.

A standard pour is 5oz and a tasting pour is 2oz. Depending on the size and shape of the glass the amount you're getting can appear to fluctuate dramatically as the eyes (and perhaps the earlier cocktails) play master illusions.

I decided to ask three people I know who are in the food service industry about this situation; one waiter and two bartenders. All agreed that you should ask about the pour if you think it is not adequate and it is not being greedy. They also agreed that 5 ounces was a usual pour. Another thing that you may factor into this equation is that a glass used for wine by the glass may not be what is used for those who purchase wine by the bottle. A personal observation is that this is different from Charleston to The Brass Elephant to Sotto Sopra. I asked one bartender where they purchased their by-the-glass wine glasses...Dollar Tree! So, you may get a pinot/sav. blanc/zin glass at table. Also, 5oz. in an 8.5 oz. glass looks a lot different than 5 oz. in a 13 oz. glass; consequently, by-the-glass stemware are usually all the same red or white. This topic caused a lively discussion on Saturday evening at the local watering hole, so a votre sante!

Oh for Christ's sake just measure the freaking glass. Sweet fancy Moses get tro the point! Blah blah blah. Measure it already you freakin wanky twanky uncle bob nafters widgets!11!!! Whatevers. Christ, just do it. BLah blah I really do think we waste a ph%k load of time doing nothing here. blerg

Okay, voodoopork--it's Monday all over, okay? If you're not interested in a particular thread, no one is forcing you to read it!

Yes Mr. Pork, perhaps there are better ways you could occupy your free time. Maybe you could help your daughter with her science fair project, say if you had a daughter, for example. :) blerg

I love it when we suck in a whole family. Remember, there's no lower age limit for posts.

Calm down Voodopork, and in the words of Aunt Esther to Fred Sanford: "Don't you blaspheme here....don't you blashpheme here!"

Regarding EL's comment about "when we suck in a whole family." My first take on that was that she was referring to D@Lers as a family that sucked, i.e., dysfunctional. That made me rue the day that D@L would begin to resemble PerezHilton - not that I truly have any knowledge of that pernicious, scathing gossip queen. And then I re-read it and realized she was talking about reeling in an entire family to the joys of D@L blogging.

Whew - at least she doesn't think ALL of us need our meds!!! (Pursuant to another existing thread's comment, I have used several exclamation points and I am male. ROFLMAO!!!!!)