Cork Dork: False Advertisement?

By Chris Nishiwaki

“I was lured to a restaurant with the promise of $5 glasses of wine during happy hour, including one of my favorite Côte du Rhones (Grenache-based blend). When the wine arrived, the glass was merely a third full. Isn’t that false advertisement?”

That’s a great question and one I hear often. Glass pours can be misleading. The fill level of a wine glass is relative to the size of the glass. Some bars and restaurants will serve you a tasting glass filled to the rim that amounts to about two to three ounces of wine. Ideally you would want a large glass about one third full leaving enough room for the wine to release its aromas inside the bulb for maximum enjoyment.

Instead of focusing on how full the glass is, measure as best you can how much wine there is in your glass or simply ask your server or bartender. Pours of five to six ounces for still wine or three to four ounces for sparkling wine are standard. Some establishments may in fact serve smaller pours during happy hour.

One way to ask politely is to enquire how many glasses of wine they pour per bottle. A regular bottle is 750 milliliters, which amounts to a little more than twenty-five ounces. Five glasses per bottle calculates to about a five-ounce pour. Four glasses per bottle equals to about a six-ounce pour.