On Mar 16, 11:21*pm, Mark Lipton > wrote:
> Jean and I recently found ourselves in the lovely Indianapolis airport
> with a two-hour-delayed flight. SWMBO convinced me to partake of some
> wine with her in the centrally located "Vinea" wine bar.
>
> Worrisome sign#1: most of the patrons are drinking BEER
>
> One glance at the wine list revealed my biggest fear: a small selection
> of crassly industrial wines.
>
> Jean and I made the best of a bad situation and got two glasses of
> Monkey Bay Sauvignon Blanc, which is at least varietally correct if
> nothing to get excited about.
>
> At the end of this pleasant diversion, we are presented with the bill,
> which shows that we owed over $10 a GLASS for the Monkey Bay, a price
> that matches what we'd pay for a bottle of the same wine RETAIL.
>
> Suffice it to say that we shan't be returning to Vinea any time soon.

Back in the early 1960s, there were some very bad wines at very high
prices in some otherwise good hotels in the US. In a hotel dining room
in Chicago I tried to find a good white for seafood. The best they had
on the list was a Chablis from some source I had never heard of before
and hope I never hear of again. It reminded me of thin wine made from
very unripe grapes. The extreme acid burned all the way down. I and 2
guests would all drink only one sip of it. We ordered Martinis to
replace it. Also in another Chicago hotel dining room, two guests who
were from Austria and Germany wanted a demi-tasse at the end of the
meal. The waiter said he would have to check to see if he could
provide it. After about 10 minutes he came back to say he did not have
the right coffee for a demi-tasse, but he could serve their regular
coffee in a demi-tasse cup.