Last night in Rome, we ordered 1/2 liter (mezzo liter) of Rosso di Montepulciano wine. The waiter soon brought us a full bottle. I said, no no, mezzo liter, to which he responded...something in Italian. When the bill came, we, of course, were charged for the bottle. I questioned it and he said you drank it, you pay for it. It didn't occur to me than he might have actually charged us less if we didn't finish the bottle. (don't really believe it in any case - I feel sure that he would have had a different line for that) I thought I'd see if this would be normal in Italy or if he was just trying to get more money out of us by not bringing what we ordered...which obviously worked!

Comments?

The wine was delicious in any case

If you drank it I would expect you to pay for it.

Surely the 'mezzo litro' in most restaurants would be the unnamed 'house wine'.

If you order a named wine it comes in bottles.

And I've never heard of a restaurant giving a deduction in price for wine that is not drunk - if you buy a bottle, you drink it or take it with you.

This might be a dumb question.

You asked for a half litre – which would be OK if you were drinking the house wine, available by the litre, half litre or quarter litre. But if it is bottled wine, then a bottle is about .7 litres. Half a bottle may not be available.

Did the menu indicate a price for half a litre?

You drank it you pay for it.

Rosso di Montalcino as a house wine? That would be my kind of restaurant!

Misleading title.
The waiter didn't replace one wine with another.
I assume that the "something Italian" was explaining that the wine didn't come in half bottles.
You accepted the bottle and drank it. End of story

a bottle in europe is 0.75 litres and you asked for a 0.5..... a half bottle is 0.375 litres, no wonder the guy muttered

I think a more interesting question is if you order wine A and they bring you B. If that happens you have to send it back straight away as indeed you should if you get a bottle which is already open.

Well, it's all water under the bridge by now...

Sorry I wasn't clear. Obviously I know that if I order a bottle of wine and drink it or don't drink it, I pay for it.

Peter_S_Aus. Not a dumb question at all!

The menu indicated Rosso di Montepulciano: 1/4 5E, 1/2 9E, 3/4 13E
The next section on the wine page listed the same quantities for a more local wine, which was cheaper.
We asked for 1/2 liter...mezzo litro
He brought the bottle and I indicated that was wrong, we wanted 1/2 liter

<< if you order a named wine it comes in bottles>>
that's exactly what I would have expected too, except for them listing the various quantities. It seemed like a good way to try the Rosso. I certainly can accept that a named wine would only be available in full bottles, but wonder why the option?

Tarquin...agreed! It WAS delicious! My kind of house wine as well!

Josser - I agree it was a misleading title. It was hard to come up with one for this. How about 'waiter gave us an entire bottle of wine when we only ordered 1/2 liter and when I tried to say that we only wanted what we ordered he responded in Italian'. but now you know that the menu gave us the option of less than a bottle.

Therein lies my question.

PatrickLondon. Don't you mean wine under the bridge ?

And don't worry, it won't ruin the vacation and didn't even put a damper on the evening. After all, we DID drink the whole thing!

Many times in Italy I have been offered house wine in labeled bottles. Perhaps he meant that you would be charged for the amount you drank, which is a usual practice. I suspect that is the case, but since you drank it all......

I've often been in restaurants in France and Italy where they bring the whole bottle and you pay for what you drink. If you finished it you pay for the whole bottle.

I'm glad you're having a good time!

Hi kw,

If you order a 1/2 bottle, you should insist on a half bottle.

If you accept the full bottle, you pay for the full bottle.

No, you wouldn't have been charged 1/2 price if you left 1/2 of the bottle on the table.

>The wine was delicious in any case<

Good.

It is not uncommon in small restaurants in both Italy and France to bring you a bottle and charge you for the amount you drank. You finish the bottle, you pay.

Societies where there are a lot of rules like this that you need to know are called "high context" societies. It isn't always easy to figure out why things are done the way they are done.

Speaking of good wine, we found an extremely good wine bar last month near the Piazza di Popolo at Via di Ripetta, 19. The high room, an old wine shop, is filled with shelves of wine to the ceiling and the lunch menu is the sort of light and salady thing you want to eat in hot weather. I chose zucchini and gamberi two times, my husband had strachetti di manzo twice - not our usual meal ordering behaviour. The wines are by the glass and excellent.

The name - Buccone.

Ira is incorrect.

In Italy it is a common practice to bring the bottle and to charge patrons for the amount consumed--whether that be a quarter or a half bottle. I cannot remember ever being given an actual 375mm half bottle in a restaurant in Italy although I am sure that such bottles can be found on many wine lists in that country.

"PatrickLondon. Don't you mean wine under the bridge ?.."

I took Patrick's comment to mean that the wine by now post-consumption, would have been converted into water, which was then disposed of in an oft Italian tradition, into the waters of a nearby river. Then again I could be wrong