A lucky diner was accidentally given a £4,500 bottle of red wine at a steakhouse in Manchester.

A manager at the Manchester branch of Hawksmoor, an upmarket chain specialising in steaks and seafood with nine sites across the UK, apparently picked up the luxury wine unknowingly in what the restaurant management described as a “one-off mistake”.

A tweet posted on the Hawksmoor Manchester Twitter account read: “To the customer who accidentally got given a bottle of Chateau le Pin Pomerol 2001, which is £4,500 on our menu, last night – hope you enjoyed your evening!”

The tweet also sought to reassure the person responsible for the costly faux pas: “To the member of staff who accidentally gave it away, chin up! One-off mistakes happen and we love you anyway,” the tweet read.

To the customer who accidentally got given a bottle of Chateau le Pin Pomerol 2001, which is £4500 on our menu, last night - hope you enjoyed your evening! To the member of staff who accidentally gave it away, chin up! One-off mistakes happen and we love you anyway 😉 — Hawksmoor Manchester (@HawksmoorMCR) May 16, 2019

A spokesperson for Hawksmoor said it has been “a very busy night”, and confirmed that the wine the customer had actually ordered was a Chateau Pichon Longueville Comtesse de Lalande 2001 for £260.

“A member of staff picked up the wrong bottle, mistaking it for another Bordeaux of the same vintage. The wine went out and was served to the customer. The customer didn’t know and it was only afterwards that one of the managers picked up what had happened,” the spokesperson said.

Will Beckett, 41, a co-founder of Hawksmoor, said: “I think they were a walk-in at the bar, the waitress just asked a manager to get that wine they chose, and she picked up a bottle of something that looked to her like it was the wine they had ordered.”

“Some time later another member of staff said: ‘ooh, someone is drinking a very impressive wine, and at the bar!’ That’s when we realised. They ordered a second bottle and the manager tactfully suggested they order a different one, without letting them know what had happened.”

Beckett said the management thought “it would be funny for the people who didn’t have to pay for that bottle” to find out via a Twitter announcement, but that so far, the customers had not been found, despite several people claiming it had been them.

“The manager who made the mistake is obviously mortified: I’m fairly sure she’s not gonna do it again,” Beckett said.

The vintage wine served features in the “rarities” section of the restaurant’s wine list.

Tasting notes for Chateau le Pin Pomerol on wineinvestment.com read: “A tremendous effort, this 500-case cuvee (one of Bordeaux’s original garage operations) is even better in 2001 than it was in 2000.

“Its deep ruby/plum/purple colour is accompanied by an extraordinary perfume of creme de cassis, cherry liqueur, plums, liquorice, caramel and sweet toast.”

Hawksmoor’s Manchester branch is a favourite in the city of the Observer’s food critic Jay Rayner and has been described by the Times’ restaurant critic Giles Coren as “comfortably the best restaurant in the urban northwest”.