A Smarter way to buy Wine when dinning out - By: Rob Dehko

Have you ever wondered why when you just purchased a bottle of wine for over $100.00 it doesn't taste amazing? If you didn't know that bottle was from a great producer would you compliment it? My thought on that is no you would not, when you are buying a bottle of wine at a fine dinning establishment, and you for whatever reason feel like buying that bottle of Opus One 2007 please DON'T DO IT, The problem is that we are in 2010 and the vintage of the Opus one is 2007!!!! The Lafite 2006 and that's the most aged bottle on the menu.

These wines were made by the wineries with their best of the best grapes, on the most expensive soil in their respected regions, they don't just throw any grapes in these bottles, they want these grapes to blend with each other to show you how great their wine making skills are, to show you how unique and special the right grapes can give you, but when they are being sold before they can even crawl it does not give them justice.

I would put up a bottle of 2007 Blackstone Merlot, which is pretty much mass produced, it costs around $10.00 to a bottle of 2007 Opus One and I am willing to bet a magnum of Opus that you would like to drink the Blackstone better on that day only because the wine is so young it hasn't had time to do anything!!! Don't get me wrong I love Opus One I have over 40 bottles in my collection of different vintages going back to 1990, but I still hardly ever drink one, the more they are aged the better they get.

That's why I say to you the fellow wine lover to not buy these wines at the fancy place and waste your money, it is better for you to get a $30.00 bottle at the restaurant and give the person a bottle of Opus One as a gift, you not only save around $200.00 but you drank some wine and now the person has a great treasure, I personally feel like it is a crime to drink these. I know that some restaurants buy what the distributor sells, but believe me as a former restaurant owner I found ways to get the aged bottles. This economy is tough enough the manager make sure their guests are having the best dinning experience possible.

One tip to have a great bottle of wine at one of these places is to see if the manager or Maitre D will allow you to bring your own bottles, a lot of establishments are doing that now. They will charge you a fee of around $25.00 to $40.00 and it is well worth it. To be able to have a bottle of 1994 Silver Oak with a great Steak and a few friends, is there anything better??

About the Author

The writer of this article is Robert Dehko he has owned and operated a fine wine retail store for over 17 years, he is also a Le Cordon Bleu trained chef. He contributes to http://www.thebestgrapes.com .

Article Directory Source: http://www.articlerich.com/profile/Rob-Dehko/75152

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