How many mistakes can you make on a wine list with a single wine? Well, here’s a nomination. At a nearby German/Austrian–themed restaurant, there was a small card on the table listing national wines. Carefully avoiding mention of vintage or region (a minefield of possible mistakes, lets face it) it offered just the name – and the price, of course. Can’t go too far wrong with that, right? So here it was:
Solomon Undorf Güner Veltiner
Fascinated that all four words could be wrongly spelt, I turned to the main list in the soft-covered folder. Although the listing was different, you wouldn’t say things had improved much…
Solommon Undorf Grüner Veltiner *
I guess they got “Grüner” right, which is an improvement over the short listing. Still plenty of mistakes, though. But the ‘*’ offered potential, surely? An explanation, perhaps? ‘Sorry – this wine list was typed on a German keyboard at great speed very late in the night after sampling one glass of each wine listed’ – some thing like that?
No – instead it offered some helpful information for those confused by the varietal constituents of the wine. Very consumer-friendly. This is what it said:
* Grüner Veltiner – blend of Verdelho and Sauv blanc.
In the end I had a Austrian wheat-beer, and very nice it was too. But I tell you, I found more humour in that wine list than most cabarets I’ve seen…
cheers,
Graeme
