Diners quaff £4,500 wine for a mere £260
Mortified manager serves the wrong Bordeaux as her sporting employers say ‘we all make mistakes’
An oversight by a trainee manager led to a group of three businessmen enjoying a £4,500 bottle of wine for the price of the £260 bottle they ordered. The diners at Hawksmoor in Manchester ordered a fine Bordeaux but the trainee accidentally picked up the pricier claret. The restaurant said: “To those who got given a bottle of Chateau le Pin Pomerol 2001 last night – hope you enjoyed your evening! To the member of staff who gave it away, chin up! … Mistakes happen.”
WHEN your wine costs £4,500 a bottle you might want to savour every drop. But the diners who were accidentally served a restaurant’s most expensive bottle might not have got the chance – as they 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, which the restaurant owners agreed “looked pretty similar”.
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 Chateau 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!
“One-off mistakes happen and we love you anyway.”
The restaurant’s message sparked a flurry of amused responses on social media, while others praised Hawksmoor for its reaction to the staff member involved.
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, two fillet steaks and a side of mashed potato, they asked for a bottle of Chateau Pichon Longueville Contesse de Lalande, 2001, which has a £260 price tag.
But a £4,500 bottle of Château Le Pin, Pomerol, 2001, was sent to the table instead. Will Beckett, 41, cofounder of Hawksmoor, said: “Another manager picked up on it when they asked for a second bottle.” Not wanting to cause a fuss, the staff member “gently steered the customers toward another bottle and kept quiet”, he said.
The steakhouse only has a single bottle of the Château Le Pin in stock at any one time, with only 500 cases of the vintage ever made. It is on their “rarities” menu and costs £3,000 more than any other bottle available.
Mr Beckett said: “I think if it was me I would have told the customer, ‘By the way, you have just drunk a £4,500 bottle of wine’. But the staff member decided to style it out.”
The final bill for the three men came to £400. When the shift was over the restaurant told the trainee manager about the error.
Mr Beckett said the person involved was an “incredible” member of staff and there had been no recriminations.
He added: “There is no point in being angry about a mistake. I have spoken to her this morning and she is mortified and I have a feeling that this is not a mistake she will make twice. These things happen.”
The restaurant has since attempted to track down the businessmen but without success.