What is it about Irish restaurants that their owners conspire to give wine-lovers a hard time? In a country booming beyond its wildest dreams and which, we are told, is growing more sophisticated by the year, we still face a situation where the diner is generally treated like a cow ready for milking.
Take the issue of wine by the glass. Last summer my family spent five weeks between Sydney and Port Douglas in the north of Australia. We ate in innumerable restaurants of variable standards in Sydney and Brisbane and many places in between. And everywhere we went, the bulk of the wine list was also available by the glass.
In the vast majority of cases these were no Jacobs Creek wine-lists, but documents which invited investigation and which displayed the restaurant's particular knowledge and understanding of the wine culture. Now, of course, you may say they would be like that, wouldn't they? After all, Australia has more wines than we have parishes. The labels that make it to this side of the planet are but a small sample of what is available. And you would be right.
But what we can learn from our Australian cousins is the encouragement that this kind of service gives to people who would like to try something different, say a Marsanne or a Verdelho, but worry that they may find a full bottle too much for them.
And this culture was not reserved for low to middle-level restaurants. One of the gastronomic delights of our trip was a memorable meal in Brisbane's famed Ecco restaurant, where it was possible to match each course with a particular style of wine by the glass. Of course we paid a small premium for this service but for the extra dimension it gave the meal it was money well spent. It was only at the really high end, the Grange and Magill Shiraz level, that these wines were not available by the glass. That is understandable - Grange costs more than £100 a bottle!
In addition, in these days of drink-driving awareness, it should hardly need stressing that diners should not be coaxed into drinking to excess. Why should someone have to order a bottle of wine when all they want is a glass, particularly when that wine is not a particularly premium example? Many will succumb to the temptation to drink to excess if they have bought the wine - very few will ask for it to be sealed so they can take it home.
At the moment, most Irish restaurants of my acquaintance have one to two house whites and reds available by the glass and that is about the size of it. By being so timid, restaurants are losing an opportunity to increase their businesses and make new friends. There are exceptions, but I know of no restaurant that leaves the bulk of its wine-list open to the glass option. It is long past time they did.
The same applies to half bottles. Why is it that there might be 50 bottles on the average restaurant list, but one would be lucky to find two half bottles, a white and a red? And most off-licences are no better. Restaurants may say half-bottles are too expensive and that nobody wants them - but this might sit easier if these attitudes had ever been tested. Increasingly, every couple out for a meal, one is drinking moderately, if at all. And what of the single diner? The idea that someone might like a glass or two of wine with their meal that is not vin ordinaire has somehow escaped the powers that be. I don't suppose it could have anything to do with the profit-margin on a bottle?
This brings me to my final gripe of the week. Is it my imagination, or does the margin on the bottle of wine increase in relation to the poorness of the food? Why is it that exceedingly fine restaurants such as the resurgent L'Ecrivain seem quite moderate in their margins compared to the average steakhouse? Is this a case of inverted snobbery? The more expensive the food the more reasonable the wine and vice versa? Would that it was that simple: sadly, too many restaurants - budget and top rate - see the wine list as an opportunity to fleece the customer.
There is nothing more calculated to make me request a glass of tap water with a slice of lemon than the sight of a wine list with well-known brands touted for more than twice their price in an off-licence. Like most people, I am happy to pay the going rate for what I consider to be good value, but the poverty of choice, the limiting of options and the profiteering is leaving a very sour taste in my mouth.
Joe Breen can be contacted at jbreen@irish-times.ie
Mary Dowey is on leave