THE WINE LIST

L’Orangerie’s Special Wine List has an unusual caveat: “Should any of these wines not be drinkable, we will assume one-half the financial risk.” Nearly anywhere else, you pay for a wine if you don’t like it, but the restaurant pays if it’s spoiled. At L’Orangerie, you always shoulder at least half the risk.

L’Orangerie’s staff, including sommelier Francois Guilman, is professional and competent, but any decisions should still take the listed price into serious consideration. Although wines are rarely rejected, older wines entail some risk for a restaurant, warranting a small increment in price.

Still, it’s shocking to see 1966 Chateau Lafite-Rothschild at $892.50, 1966 Chateau Haut-Brion at $651 and 1970 Chateau Lafite at $630 when all three are at Bel-Air Wine Merchants at $175. But even younger wines not on the Special Wine List are often three or four times the wholesale price: 1983 Dom Perignon at $220 (the retail price is rarely above $85); 1988 Grgich Hills Chardonnay at $45.50 (retail, $22). The 1966 Chateau Petrus ($1,633) exceeds its retail price ($400) by $1,233. And should the bottle be “not drinkable,” it would cost you $816.50 for the pleasure of discovering that.