The Wine Knows

I am pretty sure that this shouldn't be a new forum topic on here, but I don't know where else to put it!

We had dinner last night at Applebee's bere in Spokane. I went to order a glass of wine, and they had exactly 6 wines on the entire list. The only drinkable wine was Columbia Crest Grand Estates Merlot. That is actually a very nice wine. It was priced at $6.75 a glass, which isn't too obscene for a decent glass of wine.

The other wines on the list? Sutter Home white zinfandel, Sutter Home chardonnay, Sutter Home cabernet sauvignon, and a few other gems...

I was pretty shocked at the poor excuse for a wine list from a national chain I assumed would at least have a few of the standard, bargain basement Mondavi/Beringer/Ravenswood/Chateau St Michelle restaurant wines, all of which are as least palatable! (NOT knocking CSM... I am talking about their entry level wines.) I drank iced tea. If I had known that their wine list was that bad (Columbia Crest excepted - that is a wine I actually buy as a daily drinker, and it is pretty darned great for the price!), I wouldn't have even bothered stopping in their for dinner.

So Andy... if this isn't the kind of forum topic you want on here, hit "delete"! But if you don't mind, and if people know of some other national chains or popular places with terrible wine lists that we should all be aware of, I would like to know so I don't make the same mistake twice. Oh... the food was fine and the service was really good at Applebees!

Cheers,
Tim