Wine Etiquette: An Example of What Not to Do

I thought I might share an amusing wine-related story to add some comic relief during finals week. Back in college, the family of one of my friends was generous enough to host a few of us at their ski cabin for a long weekend. Not only did they provide us lodging, but they also provided great food and even better wine. However, one particular dinner provided a life lesson about when it might be prudent to keep some wine knowledge to yourself. As we sat down for dinner, the father brought out what must have been a $100+ bottle of white wine and rhetorically asked us if that would be suitable to pair with dinner. One of my classmates quickly responded that he prefers red and added that a red wine would pair much better with our meal. As Alder Yarrow mentioned in class, traditional perceptions of wine / food pairings may be misguided, so for all we know the white wine may have made an excellent pairing. Regardless, it may have been better just to accept the white wine and not look a gift horse in the mouth.

However, always the gracious host, the father dug through the kitchen to find a red wine to add to the feast. When he returned with the bottle of red, the same classmate inspected the bottle and said "you know, you can tell how good a wine is by looking at the size of the punt," as he presented the nonexistent punt on the bottle of red to the table (ignoring the fact that marketing strategies that go into the presentation of a wine bottle may not necessarily correlate with wine quality), followed unsurprisingly by an extend awkward silence.