Paris Cafés Caught Ripping Off Tourists With Cheap Wine

Part of the allure of visiting Paris is the idea of sitting at a busy sidewalk café casually sipping a glass of French wine. In this scenario, the wine is always somehow very affordable and yet very delicious. But it turns out that life-changing glass of Sancerre or Cabernet Franc might be cheap plonk in disguise according to a recent report.

On Monday, The Times reported that cafés in Paris often cheat customers, selling budget wines for premium prices — especially when serving tourists — citing an investigation recently carried out by French newspaper Le Parisien. For this study, two sommeliers dined at bistros around Paris posing as English-speaking tourists to see if they could detect if the wine poured was different from the wine they ordered.

The sommeliers found that the restaurants would swap wines on the menu for cheaper alternatives, assuming that tourists wouldn’t be able to tell the difference. For example, a Chablis on the menu for €9 ($10.28) a glass might be switched out for a Sauvignon Blanc listed for €5 ($5.71). The waiters at these establishments admitted to the reporters that this is a common occurrence around the city.

“You can serve the wine you want. People don’t have the sense of taste to spot it. It can be Beaujolais, Côte du Rhône, Brouilly, or any other wine,” a waitress called Sarah, with 30 years of experience in restaurants, told Le Parisien. “A sommelier knows the difference, but the tourist has no idea. I sometimes even empty leftover wine into one bottle for the happy hour.”

So what can tourists do to ensure they don’t get duped at the bar? It’s generally wise to insist on seeing the bottle when the wine is poured. But maybe in reality, getting ripped off at a café is part of the true Paris experience.

The article Paris Cafés Caught Ripping Off Tourists With Cheap Wine appeared first on VinePair.