Dear restaurant reviewers: It’s no shock that one of the reasons we read your papers is to get an informed opinion on dining out—you know, which restaurants are good, which ones suck . . . that sort of thing. You guys do a great job of waxing rhapsodic about the food and decor. Unfortunately, your reviews stop just short of providing some very necessary information: namely, to what extent the restaurant is gouging us for wine. So, I’m recommending that after you eat your meal (and before you write your review), you compare the restaurant’s wine prices with those at retail. If they’re not within a couple of bucks of each other, the restaurant is hosing us. Please report that in your review, just as you would if the food were overpriced. A complete restaurant review is a report on your entire dining experience, not just that which relates to food and wall sconces.

The little French schoolhouse

I’ve yet to figure out how one winery can be so good at making a certain kind of wine, while other wineries seem to struggle with the same grapes. The winery in question is L’Ecole. The wine is Semillon. And they do a better job of making that wine than just about any winery in the country. What does $14 buy you? A bottle of ’98 L’Ecole Semillon (pronounced seh-mee-YAWN), a hugely viscous white wine with flavors of honeydew (pronounced huhn-nee-DOO) melon and apricot. Look for the little French schoolhouse on the label.

Dennis,

A few weeks ago, you had an article about tasting a variety of wines at home. Since I basically don’t have friends, is there any place I can go to try a few out?

MATT, LESCHI

Matt,

Most people go to brothels to try out new friends. Once you’re done there, you may want to sample a few wines by the glass. A good place is The Bungalow Wine Bar at 2412 N 45th. They’ll help you choose individual wines—or a “flight” of similar wines.

e-mail Dennis: wine@seattleweekly.com