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Whiskey and rum already have a legal standard measure of 30 and 60 ml known as chhota peg and barha peg respectively as a standard measure, with Patiala peg at 90mL. But wine is relatively the new kid on the block and no clear cut policy is being followed either by the restaurants or hotels.
The enforcement wing of the Weights and Measures Department of the Delhi Government has approached the Central Government to define a standard measure legally so that the offenders maybe prosecuted.
“While there is no fixed measure for serving wine by glass, it is assumed that a standard glass of wine contains 120 ml. However, people complain of being under-served. But lack of legal provisions makes prosecution difficult. Now we are writing to Department of Consumer Affairs of the Government of India to prescribe a standardized measure for dispensing wine by glass,” said S.S. Yadav, Secretary -Food, Supplies & Consumer Affairs according to a report in the Hindu Business Line.
Although wine by the glass has been a regular feature in most 5-star hotels for several years although at a rather small scale, the size of a glass has been a self defined policy of individual restaurants. The 125 mL glass (6 glasses-a bottle) used to be more popular earlier but now 150 mL size (5 glasses-bottle) appears to have been more popular. Absence of clear-cut laws has resulted in several restaurants not even mentioning the standard unit of a glass there.
As advised by Mr. Yadav’s office, delWine contacted Bhupinder Singh, Assistant Controller- Food Supplies and Consumer Affairs who is directly in charge. While confirming the plan, he said that the government will ask for the reaction from various stakeholders before standardizing the measure which would then have to be followed uniformly.
Indian Wine Academy (IWA) has always supported 125mL as the standard measure, primarily because it costs about 15% cheaper for each glass, encouraging the consumer to order two different wines and still drink 250 mL-within the limit of being moderate. Two glasses of 150 mL fetch more sales to the restaurant but are slightly more than the advised limits. It is worth the mention that 150 mL is internationally more popular as the standard although 125mL is also prevalent, validating the hypothesis of IWA.
To the credit of most hotels, they generally price wine glass exactly as the fraction of the full bottle- 1/6th and 1/5th respectively of the bottle price. The glaring exception is a few hotels like Oberoi Delhi which serves 150 mL and charges for 187 mL, claiming that the extra 150 mL in the bottle are given to the customer free of charge for tasting. Without going into their policy, it needs to be stressed that unlike other alcoholic beverages, wine needs to be tasted-at times the customer may ask to taste and other times the restaurant or the sommelier may want the customer to try it before ordering.
It is therefore important that the tolerance should be same or even more than spirit. Singh confirms that this is already taken into consideration for spirits in that for 30mL measure, 1mLis allowed which for 60 mL is 2 mL. This would translate into 5 mL in 125 mL and 30mL in a bottle. Perhaps doubling the tolerance, i.e., 10 mL for 125 mL or 12 mL for a 150 mL glass if requested by hotels and restaurants would be justifiable.
It should be made mandatory for the list to define the standard size of the glass. It has happened with me more than once when the restaurant claimed the serving size as 150mL but the quantity was definitely less than even 125 mL!
It seems that sooner or later the stainless steel measures of 120mL and 144mL or 125mL and 150 mL depending on what the government decides.
Subhash Arora
We are of the opinion that barring the suggested mandatory printed quantity of service by the glass, the checks on measure are not advisable, for the moment. Wastage and spoilage of wine in a glass or two left in the glass is a perennial problem and the restaurant is mostly losing money on the glass concept which is to entice the customer to upgrade to ordering by the bottle-editor |