Bottoms up, it’s on us

● When your wine costs £4,500 (R82,000) a bottle you might want to savour every drop. But the diners who were accidentally served a British restaurant’s most expensive bottle apparently didn’t even notice.

A group of three businessmen dining at Hawksmoor in Manchester ordered a £260 Bordeaux. But a trainee manager accidentally picked up a much pricier Bordeaux.

The gaffe came to light when the diners asked for a second bottle and another member of staff noticed the mistake.

The restaurant later tweeted: “To the customer who accidentally got given a bottle of Château Le Pin Pomerol 2001, which is £4,500 on our menu, last night — hope you enjoyed your evening!

“To the member of staff who accidentally gave it away, chin up!”

When people online questioned who would pay that much money for a bottle of wine, the steakhouse replied: “In this case quite literally no one.”

Dale Clovey, the restaurant manager, said: “It was a very busy night for us. The Biba conference is taking place in Manchester at the moment so we think they came from that. They were suited businessmen.”

Alongside a rib-eye steak and two fillet steaks, they asked for a bottle of Chateau Pichon Longueville Contesse de Lalande, 2001. But the bottle of Château Le Pin, Pomerol, 2001, was sent to the table instead.

Will Beckett, co-founder of Hawksmoor, said: “Another manager picked up on it when they asked for a second bottle.”

The steakhouse has only a single bottle of the Château Le Pin in stock at any one time — and only 500 cases of the vintage were ever made.