Have you ever ordered a bottle of wine in a restaurant and it didn’t taste right? You thought about sending it back but were embarrassed. Don’t be! If you are not happy with the wine you ordered and feel it’s corked or tasting funny, you are the consumer, send it back. For the first time, this happened to me at a local restaurant a while ago. We debated on sending it back, but it was undrinkable. We told the waitress who took the bottle back and came back to us and said the bartender tasted it and it was indeed bad. You know how that made us feel. They thought we were pulling one over on them, they didn’t trust us, we just didn’t like our selection so we were sending it back. It made us feel like we did something wrong. Never did the bartender or owner (who cleared our plates) ever apologize for the bad bottle. These things happen. Could just be a bad bottle in a case, or it was stored incorrectly somewhere along the line. We should have never been made to feel that it was our fault. Don’t ever feel that way! If you aren’t happy with the selection, whether it’s a wine by the glass or bottle, send it back.

Here is a quick guide to some of the problems:

  • Moldy Musty Smell – Five per cent of wines are tainted from an infection in the cork. Refuse it saying the “wine is corked”
  • Flat, Lifeless – Overheated in transport or storage. The wine has its flavors cooked out. The wine is “cooked”
  • Rotten Eggs – Hydrogen sulphide is present. It should have stayed at the winery. Send it back.
  • Sherry-like or nutty Odors – Only Sherry should have the nutty flavor of Sherry. Regular wine with this aroma has been oxidized or “cooked.”
  • Off Color – Off color means a white wine that is brownish in color or a red wine with a brown or yellow rim. Not good.