A wine expert has shared his top tips for ordering drinks at a restaurant, explaining what to do if you're offered a chance to try the beverage first, and what to do if you don't like it

It can be a gutting feeling, to order a pricey glass of wine or bubbly in a restaurant, only to take a sip and find you've made a mistake - you don't like the taste.

As such you might feel hard done by paying all that money for something you're not likely to drink, so what can you do about it?

Don't panic as an expert has shared their top tips to help you get the right beverage to go with your meal when you're dining out.

Carlos Santos, the Wine and Operations Manager for Humble Grape in London, has explained what to do when you regret your drink order and how to tell if a wine is right for you.

Speaking to The Mirror, he said: "Hopefully a sommelier has done their job properly and you won't find yourself in this situation, but it's all about communication.

"If you try a wine and you don't really like the wine, have a frank conversation with the sommelier and explain why you didn't like it.

"In most cases, unless you have requested that the restaurant open a very expensive bottle of wine, they will simply take the bottle back and sell it by the glass to other customers and let you choose a different bottle of wine."

But in order to avoid getting to this point, you need to be open with your sommelier about your palette.

Carlos continues: "Very often on the restaurant floor, we find people are a bit shy about talking to us about what they like and what they don't like, but believe me no one in the world loves more to talk about wine than sommeliers, if you ask us a question about wine, we will talk about it until the cows come home.

"So the first thing you need to do to avoid getting a drink you don't like is telling them what amazing wine you tried last week, or last month and which ones you didn't like. This way they'll be able to find a wine that's suitable for you."

This may be followed by a sommelier offering you a small sample of the wine to try.

Many people might be unsure what to do when presented with a taster, so Carlos has shared his expert advice and he claims it's not about working out whether or not you like the drink, it's actually a "ritual" for you to tell if the wine is in good condition or not.

"This ritual is for you to try and see if the wine is ready to be drunk or if it is out of condition," he says. "Very often, customers will not have come across a corked bottle of wine and don't know how to recognise it.

"So what you're going to do is notice the smell, if it's corked it will smell musty, a bit like a wet cardboard box, and in worst cases, it could smell like a wet dog. If you smell something that's not right, talk to the sommelier and tell them."

He adds: "The wine could also have been exposed to oxygen for too long. Let's say the bottle of wine is being served by the glass at the restaurant and has been sitting on the shelf for a long time, how do you recognise that?

"Well, the wine should smell fruity and have a bright aroma. If that lovely aroma has been substituted by nuts, almost smelling like sherry, that's a sign it's been oxidised and you'll need to tell the sommelier."

Source:
courtesy of MIRROR

by COURTNEY POCHIN, LIFESTYLE EDITOR

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