We had a decent dinner at a high end restaurant on the Restaurant Row of the MGM Grand last weekend and as we were sitting at the table waiting for our meal I was watching the waiters serving glasses of vino to the diners at most of the tables surrounding ours.

I laughed a bit because in every case there was only a little bit of wine in these very huge wine glasses and it looked like the customers were being "gypped".

So when our wine arrived I made the comment that fine dinning spots no longer fill up the glass and must be short-serving in order to make more money from each opened wine bottle.

On the way out of the restaurant we happened to pass the Matre'd and told him that our dinner was fine but we were disappointed in the quantity of wine that was served in these huge wine glasses.

Must be a lot of complaints because he was immediately defensive and was stated that "That's the way the customers like it and the way the experts say it should be served!"

I told him that it would be a far better idea to serve more wine in these huge glasses so that they did not appear to look "empty" or short served, or at least serve the little bit of wine the poured into these huge glassses in "smaller glasses" so that they appeared to be full.

And he went on in great detail saying that the "EXPERTS' wanted wine served as they were serving it here tonite in this restaurant.

We had a chuckle about that all the way home and when I got home I pulled out one of these very huge wine glasses (I got a mixed set that are still in service) and soon determined that this fancy restaurant was serving approximately 4 ounces of wine taking up about 1/6 or less of the glass.

That left a lot of empty space.

I think that they should use smaller glasses regardless of what these so-called experts claim that every fine diner likes..... A glass small enough to "fill it to the top" and not so large that I feel I've been ripped off.

Who's right here? The Wino Expert or me - the "ripped-off" fine dining customer?

Will, I'm no wine snob, by any means, (I drink very little of the stuff, it makes me goofy). But I think your wine steward is correct, the wine snobs, er I mean experts, go for the less then half full glass to let it breath, something about the nose of the wine, or some such thing. The added bonus is, it's a great way to get more glasses out of a bottle of wine, and who are they to disobey the "EXPERTS"!
Order by the bottle and this problem goes away!

Actually it depends on what wine you are drinking. If it is tapped out of a cardboard box the glass doesn't make any difference. It also doesn't matter much for whites since they are chilled. On the other hand, if you are coughing up $20+ for a glass of a fancy red wine, being able to smell it is part of the taste. Also for the pricey wines, it is my experience that they are pretty standardized on the size of the serving.

Eric