News quickly went viral after Hawksmoor said in May 2019 that it had mistakenly served a bottle of legendary Bordeaux wine Le Pin 2001, listed at £4,500 on the menu, to guests.
Writing on Twitter, now X, Hawksmoor Manchester said it hoped the customer enjoyed their evening. It added to the staff member involved, ‘One-off mistakes happen and we love you anyway.’
Six years later, Hawksmoor cofounder Will Beckett has told the The Go To Food Podcast that he decided to write the social media post after staff alerted him to the incident by text message overnight.
Beckett said the staff member involved had come down to Hawksmoor Manchester from the Edinburgh branch to gain experience for a couple of weeks.
Two guys ordered a ‘spendy’ bottle of Bordeaux listed at more than £200, Beckett explained, but the staff member accidentally picked up the £4,500 Le Pin 2001 in the cellar.
Back at the table, the staff member opened the wine, checked it with the customers, poured the contents and then ‘goes about her business’, Beckett recalled.
’[After] about an hour, [the diners ask] can we have another bottle of that?’, he said. But, on going back to the cellar, the staff member thought it was odd that she couldn’t see another bottle of the wine.
‘I think at that moment, she’s like, “oh my God…I’ve given them a bottle of Le Pin 2001,’ Beckett said, adding that she managed to ‘style it out’ by explaining that the wine was now out of stock.
It wasn’t clear what the guests ordered next, but it would have been a hard act to follow. This is a top vintage from one of the most renowned names in Pomerol on Bordeaux’s Right Bank.
Wine critic Jane Anson awarded a perfect 100-point score to Le Pin 2001 during her time as Decanter’s Bordeaux correspondent.
Its average UK retail price was around £3,400 per bottle in April 2025, according to Wine-Searcher.
Beckett’s decision to publicise the incident was quickly seized upon by news outlets.
It also led to Hawksmoor Manchester getting much busier for a couple of weeks afterwards, more than recouping the money lost on the wine, he explained.
In September 2019, Hawksmoor said it had promoted the staff member involved to a general manager position.
