Reviews of The Oxbow Natural Wine Bar & Restaurant in Winnipeg

If you order a bottle of wine at this restaurant, the server will bring the bottle to the table, show it to you, and then take it away, open it somewhere else and bring the open bottle back to your table. So, at this point you don't know if you are given the wine you've ordered or they've might give you some other cheaper version of what you’ve ordered, possibilities are endless. After questioning why they are doing this, we got an answer that it is European way of serving wine (not sure where in Europe they've seen this, as I am a European myself and lived half of my life in Europe and never seen this practice, although this type of practice was done very briefly some 300 hundred years ago in France, and it’s been voided since. On occasion, if you order let’s say wine that is 20-30 years old, the real sommelier will open and taste the wine together with you at your table. The bottle is never ever taken away from your table to taste! After we complained about this practice one of the manager Luke (the “sommelier”) barred us from the restaurant stating we were rude saying we believe that this practice is more about his ego than doing it the right way. We were so appalled by this practice and the arrogance of the staff of this establishment; we have reached out to experts on this issue, and this is what we got:

“There should be a statement on the wine list indicating the policy of the restaurant. It should never preclude the guest’s option to taste the wine, even if this in addition to the sommelier tasting the wine to verify lack of flaws.
Also, if the policy of the restaurant is to have the sommelier taste the wine for approval, it is only fair that the credentials of the sommeliers in the restaurants be printed on the wine list. I know I have been to far too many restaurants in which the “sommelier” is just someone playing that role, but without the required expertise to actually fulfill that role.
If decision is made to change or upend traditional wine service, clearly the interest of the guest, not the restaurant or service staff, should be first and foremost in that decision.”

Steven Kolpan
Chair, Wine Studies
The Culinary Institute of America
Hyde park, NY 12538