RESPECT FOR WINE
SIR,-,--Both Mr. Dencs and Leslie Adrian are right in their particular ways. Each is speaking of his own experience. Adrian, it now becomes clear, is accustomed to have wines of very high quality de- canted for him personally by the wine-growers or importers. Mr. Dcnes, like ourselves, simply drinks whatever promises to go with his food. While know- ing something himself about wines, he does not, apparently, expect this high art to be understood In small restaurants or provincial areas.
The difference, it became clear from Adrian's renewed essay last week, is fundamental. He is demanding from ordinary restaurateurs an exper- tise which was, even in the aristocratic heyday of French and English societies, confined to the most exclusive exponents of a major art—that of living
Leaving aside the obvious but not widespread element of restaurant spivvery, the mistake seems to lie with Mr./Miss Adrian. If one truly cares about wine and if the wines one drinks are a balanced Part, with the food, of the meal one is being served, then surely one does not order meals in a restaur- ant which is not known for its wines? This, of course, restricts the choice enormously. Real wine experts never did—and don't now—simply go some- where to eat and expect the wines to be perfect or even passable, judged by châteaux standards, at ten minutes' notice. They eat at home, in their friends' houses, in clobs or a number' of restaurants where 'cluiteau-bottled' has a real and not a public- relations meaning. But one is, in this case, in a privileged class; and even if many members of this Class are in it because they represent some inter- est, it is still important that the serious appraisal of wine (as of food) be kept alive.
However, this class does not (I take it) include Mr. Denes and certainly not ourselves. Frequently we eat where we have to and are glad of palatable food and a decent wine which fits the food. One would never think of ordering a 'serious' wine in a place one did not know—and certainly not with- out letting one's wishes be known well in advance. Except in a really first-class restaurant, one would surely not expect to order up a claret at a moment's notice and find it in good condition. Very few restaurants I know of between Inverness and Istanbul have that sort of service; claret especially, and in fact any red wine, needs time for opening
and settling down. lf one is going to cat at a par- ticular hotel or restaurant and really care about
a meal, it seems to me elementary that one should
consult well beforehand, as to what foods are available and the wines to go with them. Other-
wise one does what they do in nine restaurants out of ten in France, Spain, Germany and any other wine-growing, wine-drinking country—accept the
loosely identified bottle which is plonked with a flourish on the table before one and consume it Bonn, Wolkenburgstr. 1
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