Category: Wine

Veritas Wine List

For those of you who would like a basis for comparison when contemplating whether wine is overpriced in a restaurant in our humble burg: here is the complete wine list of Veritas in New York– one of the great lists in the world — to use when contemplating whether that bottle of Romanee-Conti, or that Dauvissat Les Clos 1989 Grand Cru, or something as pedestrian as a half-bottle of Ridge Sonoma Zinfandel ($45), is being priced fairly.

According to Friend In Food Alan Richman (in this post on his blog), many restaurants and sommeliers use the Veritas list as a pricing benchmark when establishing their own lists. He also states there are over 200 bottles available at Veritas for under $75, but good luck finding them among the 3,500 labels.

After perusing it, ELV decided two things: One, we can’t afford to drink in New York City anymore; and two, the wine programs at Marche Bacchus and STEAK look better than ever to us.

More corkage controversy

This missive was posted a couple of days ago under the comments for the “Corkage is a no-no…but not so fast” article we ran last month. It was so interesting that we decided to push it front and center to give you some more Food For Thought.

From Prof. Restaurant to ELV (August 24, 2008):

I do not and will not allow anyone to bring their own bottle(s) into my restaurant. Why? Because of all of the hassles associated with it…if you don’t charge a corkage…sales suffer and the server feels slighted. If you charge a corkage…it always seems like someone “expects” to get that fee waived…plus I have had people on numerous occasions call ahead and ask if they can bring a bottle, the hostess says “sure, as long as it is not a bottle from our list” and they showed up with 3 magnums of the cheapest wine imaginable..it was embarrassing that people around them thought I served that stuff!!

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