zgast

Zgast, I don't question the veracity of your description of your experience. It is certainly unfortunate and definitely off-putting.  This would have been a good time to get the name of the staff member who was doing this and comment to management--or better, ask for one of the managers to help you.

Did you say to the staff member who was taking your order that you wanted to spend up to $XX, or did you just point to a bottle and ask about it? Either way, there's a huge difference between $70 and $450.

My husband and I eat at Fiola Mare about 10 times per year, and we've never been upsold on wine. Not once. And we do not select expensive wines to drink there--we try to keep the price under $50-$60. I see that they have recently changed the wine list and the prices are higher than they used to be. That being said, this past Saturday, we ordered and were served a $35 bottle of wine. When we finished that asked for a second bottle, we were informed that they had no more of that wine, but could offer us one of the same style and price point, which we accepted. The wine they served us was $45. We don't consider that upselling.

I didn't say explicitly that I was only looking to spend $60-$80 on the wine. I've never had to do that - my understanding of the process is that the sommelier's responsibility is to read your cues on price - particularly when you are ordering for a table of guests.

I also don't want to seem like I'm here to bash Fiola Mare.  They made us a good meal with one glaring service error. Based on my experience, I probably would try other places again first as they're at a price point that isn't forgiving of errors, but that doesn't mean that Fiola Mare doesn't usually fire on all cylinders. It seems like others have had very good experiences there.

 zgast, am I reading this correctly?

1) You were offered a $500 bottle.

2) You asked about a $70 bottle to establish how much you wanted to spend.

3) You were directed to a $450 bottle.

4) You asked about a sub-$100 bottle to solidify how much you wanted to spend.

5) You were directed to a $600 bottle?

Can you give some more detail? This is as egregious of an upsell as anything I've heard about since I've been running this website. According to their website, Fiola Mare has fully four people who can wear the sommelier tastevin - was it one of these? Are there any other extenuating circumstances we should know about? This is something Fabio and Maria will probably want to know about, and I suspect it will get back to them, so as much detail as you can provide would be very useful to them.

Only once in my life have I been upsold on wine this ruthlessly (at Le Paradou, with their predatory sommelier Nicolas Rouet, and I have plenty of credible witnesses to back up my story on this one). I've always found that if you point to a wine at a certain price, that's an unwritten "code" to focus the conversation on wines at that price range, and no good sommelier would ever violate that protocol unless there was a reason for it. Is there anything else you can think of?

Fiola Mare's wine list is expensive as hell, but customers ordering bottles on a budget have numerous options in the sub-$60 range, and if Fiola Mare puts their seal of approval on these less-expensive wines by having them on their list, that should (by definition, and in theory) mean that they're decent bottles - yes, probably much more expensive than at the retail level, but still, screened by their wine professionals at least for drinkability if not quality.

FiolaMareWineList2016-Feb-17.pdf

Yes - you got all those facts correct.  The sommelier was a woman, but beyond that I couldn't tell you much more - it was last year.  Unfortunately, my only witness was my wife.  We were just headed out for our weekly date night, which would make it a Wednesday.  I will say that the place was quite packed and most looked like expense account meals or big day celebrations.  Perhaps we were mistaken for one of those, but I truly felt like I was following standard protocol for signaling my price point.

Good lord this community is amazing. I wish Don got some money or something every time people on this community were amazing. He'd be rich.

The GM is sold on my passion and my eagerness - that's what got me in the door in the first place. Bart's right, though - this particular winery is about the business of the winery, not about the wine. They want me to demonstrate that I can get people in the door and get companies to use their cellar for meetings, not that I can get their wines on menus (although if I did get the job I'd want to change that).

I love Linden - it's the only winery I'm currently a case club member of - because they're clearly more about the wine than about throwing weddings or corporate events.

I'm okay with just promoting the winery, though. I've always loved wine, but I've never been "in" to wine to the point where I'd consider myself an expert on different grapes or vintages. For me, the wine is about the experience: pop the cork and share it with good friends, drink a little too much, eat a little too much, and laugh together just the right amount.

I put together my proposal and sent it along... it's a very long shot. There are plenty of marketing professionals in the area who do have hospitality experience who would kill for the chance to work at this (very $UCCE$$FUL) winery.

Wish me luck... and thank you!!!

So - did you get the gig?

I find the list odd, especially for Todd.  He's always been a great advocated of ethnic and downscale, and deeply distrustful -- even disdainful -- of formality.  And suddenly Fiola Mare, a complete bastion of establishment eating is tops and Plume, which has historically been presented as underperforming in the kitchen and being a bit stiff on the floor is #6, (just a head of Bad Saint which is much more Klassic Kliman).  Speaking of establishment bastions, is it me, or did Bistro Bis kind of come out of nowhere?  And how about the return of the Inn at Little Washington?

Interesting that Fiola Mare and Casa Luca make the top 10, but Fiola is absent.

This - above - is what puzzles me. I've eaten in the majority of the places in that list and my overwhelming sentiment after eating at Fiola Mara was - 'Why did I just spend that much money for that meal?'  Got off to a bad start when the sommelier tried to steer me to a $500 bottle on an ordinary Wednesday night.  Politely asked about a $70 bottle to steer her back.  She returned to a $450 bottle for her next recommendation. I inquired about another sub $100 bottle.  She came back immediately with a $600 bottle.  Sorry - that's not good service - that's running a racket.

Food was good, but not great.  At the end of the night, I shelled out as much for a meal there as at Le Bernadin.  I've never described anything at the latter as good, not great.  Ok - diatribe over - I'm one post closer to seeing Don's list.

Shame - Really did think this was the best of the Bethesda burger places.  Perhaps the fact that that's a large group was the real problem.  Haven't tried Fish Taco, but I'll give it a chance.  The end of the Woodmont construction might even bring increased foot traffic back to the area.

Any word on soft or hard opening for Kapnos Kouzina in Bethesda?  Seems like work has started progressing again there.

Hi - new user here.  Looking forward to participating.

Zach