Training young people to be great wine servers is a thankless task, restaurant owners tell me, because the good ones leave for better jobs.

Ive heard this repeatedly, in one form or another, for the last two decades. But I usually later learn that the speaker was rather naive about this almost untouchable subject. Those using this defense dont usually do much staff training.

Well-trained wine servers should be seen as a treasured commodity. They guide uncertain patrons to quality wines that go with the foods they have ordered, and a happy patron is a lot better than one who is unhappy.

I could tell at least a dozen wine-service horror stories Ive encountered, either personally or from friends, that illustrate the woeful state wine service is in.

Here are a few:

-- A traveling wine executive checked into a Chicago hotel, then went downstairs for a business meeting with colleagues in the hotel cafe. She ordered a glass of the house white wine, a chardonnay. When it arrived, she asked the waitress, Whose is this? The waitress replied, Yours.

-- At New Jersey hotel restaurant, I ordered a glass of the house cabernet. The waiter arrived with what most obviously was a very old, oxidized beaujolais. Whats this? I asked. Uh, you ordered the red, didnt you? asked the confused waiter. The story degenerates from there.

-- I ordered a chianti at a chic Beverly Hills Italian trattoria. It was $42. The waiter departed and returned to say it was out of stock. I ordered another chianti. The waiter returned to say it too was out of stock. I asked which chiantis the restaurant did have. The waiter left and returned with a bottle the place had. He said it was $76. I said I wanted something in my price range. He left and came back with a wine (not a chianti) that normally sells for about $10 in retail shops, and said it was $35. In frustration, we ate our salads, paid for them, and left.

-- I ordered a glass of the house red wine, a lowly Bordeaux. When the wine arrived, I could easily tell the bottle had been open too long: the wine was oxidized. I told the waiter. Without saying a word, he sent over the manager, who proceeded to argue with me that the wine was still good. And his reasoning, he thought, was sound: He said he never gets any complaints about wines left open overnight. Oh?

-- At a New York cafe, the red wine we ordered was delivered to the table at about 80 degrees Fahrenheit I asked for a wine bucket. The waiter curtly stated, Red wine shouldnt be served chilled. I informed the waiter that I was paying for the bottle and Id like to make the wine more drinkable than the state in which it was delivered.

-- At an Australian-themed steakhouse, the wine we ordered came to the table with the cork already pulled. I asked if the wine isnt usually uncorked at the table. Oh, thats the way they do it in Australia, said the bubble-headed blond waitress. (No, it isnt.) Continued...