It’s Rick here again. We’re back in France for a few days on our way from Tuscany to Barcelona so a good time to publish these comments. We love the wines in France and the availability of good wines at surprisingly low prices is wonderful. But the wine service in restaurants deserves a special shout out. It puts service at home to shame. From the corner cafe to a fine restaurant, the stemware is exemplary–nice thin rims equal to a Riedel stem. I should also mention that every Airbnb has also provided decent wine glasses for our use at home.
In Alsace, wine is served in the typical little Alsatian glasses…maybe not our favorite, but appropriate for the region.
An ice bucket is always presented with plenty of water in it, as well as ice, to chill the wine, unlike at home when we routinely have to dump our water glasses into the bucket to actually get it to cool down the wine.
And the wine lists – cartes du vins – are quite reasonably priced–most wines under 25€! Tony Forman would be wise to note that not one sommelier has tried to taste our wine before we were offered a taste!!
One other noticeable difference – and not an altogether unwelcome one – is that, once the wine is served – except in really upscale restaurants – it is usually left on the table for you to pour for yourself…with no need to feel apologetic about it.
Drinking wines from every region has been one of the joys of this adventure.
You will do all the wine selecting when we meet up in Barcelona in a couple weeks!
Thanks Rick.
Nice to know. It has been quite a while since we have been to France and I cannot say I noticed that, but I agree with your assessment of the wine service in France and since it appears uniform it must be a practiced art.
Reason enough to go on its own
The wine glasses in Alsace are really cute and I loved using them when visiting the area. I noted the ability to pour for yourself when having a bottle of wine at the table and liked choosing when, or if, I wanted more wine. I have really enjoyed the reports of your travels and have written down some wine selections to see if I may get them locally.