Why do fine-dining waiters monopolise the wine?

Q: Why do waiters in high-end restaurants pour your wine and then take the bottle away? I often find I’ve finished my meal but not the wine. I then have to go and look for it.
J.W., Frenchs Forest, NSW

You’re not the only one irritated by this practice. It’s a quirk of modern, high-end restaurants that staff insist on pouring every glass from every bottle, perhaps because it gives them something to do and makes them feel important. But as you say, they rarely do it when you want it.

Years ago, I was eating in a high-priced Sydney restaurant when our group’s bottle of expensive, grand cru Alsace riesling was placed in an ice-bucket between our table and the neighbouring one. The following scenario unfolded: a different waiter picked up next-door’s Jacob’s Creek chardonnay, topped up our glasses with it and, in so doing, presented us with a multinational riesling/chardonnay shandy to savour. They’d placed the bottle nearby – not at the far end of the room – but it didn’t stop the disaster happening.

Most exclusive eateries have an aversion to leaving a bottle on the table because they think it a) clutters the tabletop and b) looks uncouth when diners serve themselves. Sigh. But the upshot of placing it elsewhere is that if, like me, you enjoy more than a few bird-like sips of wine with your meal, you can spend the entire evening trying desperately to make eye contact with the staff.

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My theory is that establishment owners are surely doing themselves out of sales. After all, if you and I could freely top up our own glasses, wouldn’t we be more likely to order a re-supply? But then the opposite scenario is, perhaps, also true: your glass is constantly being topped up – right to the brim (now that’s uncouth!) – with the result that, all too quickly, you’re being asked if you’d like another bottle of the same.

Suggestion to waiters: ask diners if they’d like you to pour for them, or if they’d prefer to do it themselves. It’s one way to alleviate their concern that another customer might be drinking their expensive bottle of wine.

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