Having wine with dinner
 

I think I read someplace that often there is wine with a price-fixe dinner?..is that true?

If not, is there usually a house wine that is reasonable?

If you order a bottle, and drink half of it can you take it as we do here at home?

Any suggestions are welcome. We will be trying to budget ourselves but we like wine at dinner...would like to know what is the best way to handle this ...in France?

You can order:
- a single glass
- a "demi-bouteille" (sp.?) or 1/2 bottle
- a carafe stated in centiliters - I think 50cl = 2 small glasses.

We can't drink an entire bottle with dinner. I've read that there is a movement to recork and let customers take the remainder (to reduce DUI) but don't know how prevalent that is...

Prix-fixe dinners sometimes come with a 1/2 pitcher of wine, sometimes not. There is always a selection of reasonably priced wines - a lot more reasonable than you are probably used to!
I've never had any wine left over, so I don't know what the conventions are regarding taking a bottle away;), but I've never seen a customer walking out of a French restaurant with a partly filled bottle.

Thanks for the good info. I am afraid too that all the ambiance and good food, I won't have any wine left to worry about either.

For the metrically challenged, 50cl would give you two LARGE (8oz) glasses of wine. It's 2/3 of a regular bottle of wine.

From my experience, I think the prix fixe dinners I've had (which were in modest places) usually do not include the wine. But sometimes they do (perhaps 25 pct of the time), and when they do, I have always gotten an individual demi-bouteille in that case. I was dining alone, but I believe those in couples also got bottled wine, not in a carafe or pitcher. It's not necessarily any great label, so just being in a bottle doesn't mean it's any better if it's labelled "table wine" which is the lowest level. SOmetimes I think the bottles were not "table wine", though. All modest restaurants will hve reasonable wines for diners to order that I've been in. They would have to in France where so many people do have wine with dinner.

I am a big wine drinker, but always simply order house white wine in Europe. Most often a "demi" which will come in a carafe or little clay pitcher. Yes it is very reasonably priced.

Then if you drink that up, you order another (or that's how my French/Swiss friends always handle wine in restaurants). This avoids the fuss over choosing a bottle, corks, etc.

If you also order a bottle of still or fizzy water alongside, you'll look like the locals.

When there is a house wine, that is what we order also and have never been disappointed. A restaurant with a house wine of really inferior quality would be in serious trouble.

And Loisco? When you're in Provence, order one of their rose's
(Note: the apostrophe that appears is really supposed to be one of those little accent things over the e. And yes, I realize I am french spelling challenged; but I can speak it well enough!)

You'll be surprised..its not a white zin. "Friends don't let friends drink white zin". Nor is it like Mateus of our youth.

Yes, that's true for some fixed price meals ... often with a particular wine matched to each course ... at an extra charge of course. But an excellent way to broaden one's horizons.

Another word for the 50cl flask is "pinchet" or similar spelling.

"Pichet"

The rosé's of Provence are wonderful, especially, the Bandol Domaine Tempier.

I assume each area has its specialty...next year we have to go to Burdundy as I love Pinot (and this was way before the movie Sideways)..

OK..you"ve set my mind at ease. Would love suggestions as to specific wines and areas. I have a wine list (and will have a cheese list). Now that we have a PDA we can store all this info.

The <i>prix fixe</i> lunch prices often include a <i>pichette</i> (small pitcher) of house wine. That is equivalent to half a bottle and fills a little bit more than two glasses.

Ordering more wine than you want to drink in a restaurant is certainly a waste of money. Order what you wish and leave the dregs to the waiter and the kitchen crew.

Being on a budget all the time, sometimes I buy a bottle of Bourgogne in a wine shop and take it to my room with some pat&eacute;, a selection of cheeses including goat cheese, a tomato, and one of those long breads.