Any know about wine measures in restaurants, please?

[AgentPidge]

I went to a restaurant last week for a birthday meal and wanted some fizz. Ordered a glass of prosecco for £7.

When it came, it was a small flute, half full. Literally about an inch and a half, if that. It looked really mean to not fill up the glass a bit more. The menu said their measures are 125ml. OK. My question is, would it have been filled up and then gone down because of the bubbles? If so, should they have put a bit more in? None of my party had wine so I didn't compare.

Yesterday I measured 125ml of water into a small flute and it came nearly to the top.

I did contact them afterwards about the service (food was delicious but we waited nearly an hour) so I did mention the prosecco, but all they said was that they are governed by the law on UK weights & measures.

TIA

Sounds like they did not wait for the fizz to go down and top it up.

Sounds about right. 125 is a large thimble. Do u to oh know yours was the same volume as theirs?

125ml is a very small measure and always looks tiny! A 175ml measure would probably have filled the flute nicely (or at least adequately)

Most flutes are 125ml. You won’t be able to fit 175 ml in one.

However you should have been served with a glass almost to the top so yeah you were short measured

Depends on the size of the flute. In some restaurants the glasses are large so it looks like you don't get much - we had glasses which were 150ml so 125 is almost to the top. The restaurant is right to say they are governed by weights and measures - they can be inspected any time (including the evening) and there is no warning. A lot of places don't use a measure for fizz (it will make it lose its bubbles faster) but have a glass behind the bar with the correct level marked on it and just fill the customers glass to the same level.

125ml is small - a standard glass in restaurants is 175ml and a large is 250ml. Most people think of 250 as normal (there have been studies) so a 125 looks minute.

Most fizz is served in flutes which hold 125ml ... but that usually goes right to the top.

I just measured out 125ml of water too and poured it into a wine glass. It was a decent amount of wine and it sounds as if they are serving short measures. If they say on the menu 125ml it’s an offence to give the customer less than that. They should be reported to Trading Standards.

Yeah, if it was in a champagne flute then it was definitely a short measure.

https://www.gov.uk/weights-measures-and-packaging-the-law/specified-quantities

There are no specified measures on the volume of sparkling wine by the glass in the regulations.

They could have poured you 50 ml and said "it's a glass" and that is legal. You were simply ripped off.

Thank you, that's interesting and informative.

The point is that on the menu, above the sparking wine bit (there were only two choices) they say 125ml or a bottle, and then under that give the prices for both. So people should be getting 125ml of sparkling.

Oh that’s naughty of them then, if it states 125ml, by law it has to be that. If it said ‘a glass’ with no quoted ml, then they can pour what they deem ‘a glass’ worth

Sounds like they skimped, which is not on!

Yes I think you were underserved. Silly of them, as presumably you are much less likely to go back there, for the sake of 30ml of wine.

This is why I always order a half, pint or a bottle to share. Can't bear paying as much for a small glass than I would be almost a whole bottle. Call me tight but I don't care!!!!

The bottle was £39 and I daren't have more than two glasses because I can't hold my drink! I like to have fizz on my birthday but the others were drinking gin or soft drinks. Actually I much prefer cava but it was prosecco or champagne.

But I agree with you. It's dispiriting to be served a measly but expensive part-glass of wine.

This.

You're never going to get an absolute measurement with something fizzy unless you wait for it to go flat, but freshly opened prosecco is mostly bubbles on the first couple of pours, so it does need to be allowed to settle and topped up to get as close as possible while still serving it with bubbles in it.

So yes, they could have poured 125ml into a measure and then into the glass and it would have measured at that volume until the fizz subsided.

Sounds like a bit of inexperience on behalf of whoever poured it, they've been asked to pour a 125ml measure and that's likely what they've done without waiting for it to settle a bit and topping it up, rather than a deliberate act to rip customers off.

Theirs looked smaller than mine (125ml), but that could be because I was expecting a bigger glass. I don't eat out much but where we usually go (a pub) the measure must be 250ml. But anyway, if the restaurant's glass was the same as my small one, 125ml would come nearly to the top of theirs.

Thank you. The waiters were all very young - there seemed to only be one older person there and she was checking people in and taking them to tables rather then serving. If the waiter had poured it, it could be exactly as you said - pour and then take to the table as the bubbles go down.
Their comment to me got my back up. You would've thought they might have realised that the bubbles had gone down and it hadn't been topped up, instead of insisting they'd got the right measure.

They won’t have short changed you. 125ml isn’t very much even in flute.

The flute was about half full. 125ml would have nearly filled it. I now think they poured it but the bubbles went down, and to get the 125ml they should've waited a few seconds and then filled it up again.

Thing is though people often over estimate what a measure is, and while it's easy to put right at the time, because you can physically see/measure it with the customer present, a lot harder to distinguish if the customer has over estimated what the measure actually is or the bar staff have made a mistake from an email a few days later.
I've remeasured wine in front of the customer, to the exact ml in a government stamped measure to still be told that I've short measured them, because their small measure is more like 200ml free pour and a small pub measure (which has to be offered by law) is 125ml and doesn't fill the glass in the same way because obviously it's not as much, and even with the proof right in front of them, some people will still dig deeper and insist for no other reason than they're the customer and therefore automatically right on those grounds - and it's damaging to the business and the staff concerned when that happens - people try and get an apology, a freebie, a refund or just some attention but the staff stand to be punished for doing nothing wrong, and unfortunately that's on the increase, so it's no wonder really that managers no longer just take a customers word for it without some evidence of some sort (other than what the customer says) because they need staff as much as they need customers.

@Maverickess Thanks. I take your point about them only having my word for it, and customers always wanting a bigger measure. I imagine that if it had been still wine rather than sparkling, it would've filled the glass (almost). Their problem would seem to be a lack of staff training.

Anyway, it was a few days ago now and I don't think I'm going to do anything about it. I'm unlikely to go back because it was quite a trek and there are places locally that I like more.