These are the strangest drink requests sommeliers have received
Of course, you always order a wine from the wine list and then don’t do anything crazy with it. Just swirl, sip, drink. The usual. But some guests turn an ordinary order into something truly bizarre. We asked top sommeliers about the strangest drink requests they’ve received — and some of them really hurt if you love wine.
Isabel van Bueren, sommelier The White Room by Jacob Jan Boerma
“A guest ordered a very beautiful Bordeaux. Then he asked whether I would mix it with cola...”
Erica Verweijen, sommelier Aan de Poel
“Rapper The Game and his entourage who constantly ordered Hennessy XO-Red Bull with ice.”
Nabil Touires, sommelier Graham’s Kitchen
“Guests who mix cola with red wine and 7-Up with white wine. It hurts me when I have to serve that. Or, this really happens regularly: guests who don’t drink Chardonnay but do order Chablis. That IS Chardonnay!”
Randy Bouwer, sommelier Zarzo Eindhoven
“A guest: ‘Château Petrus 1990 please… and 4 Coca-Cola on the side…’ WTF, I thought. Doubt, doubt. What to do?! I served it anyway (the cola, that is), on the side, walked away and looked around the corner to see whether they would pour the cola into the wine themselves… The two cans of Red Bull next to a bottle of Cristal Louis Roederer Champagne so they could mix it also unfortunately stayed with me.”
Anonymous
“I had a table of six female friends, and there was an immediate certain tension with one of them. When she asked me for a nice Italian wine — a perfectly normal drink request in itself — I recommended a Cavolo Nero. ‘Huh, isn’t that a kind of cauliflower?’ she replied. Of course I meant a Nero d’Avola, but because of the tension I wasn’t at my best for a moment. The whole table burst out laughing and I wanted the ground to swallow me up.”
Ruben Kwakman, sommelier Zarzo Eindhoven and wearesommos
“Whether I would put ice cubes in a very beautiful wine. Of course I served it from a hospitality perspective, but with tongs, so the guest could put them in the glass themselves.”
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