Serving Wine at your Home Dinner Party

Do you have lots of questions about serving wine when you host a dinner party at home? Questions like:

• What kind of wine glasses should I use?
• What temperature should the wine be at?
• Should I let the wine breathe?
• Opening the wine
• Decanting
• Should I serve the wine my guest brought?

Let's answer those questions one by one so you can serve wine without stress at your home dinner party.

Start with a supply of all purpose wine glasses that you can use for serving wine of almost any kind. Wine glasses with stems are nice because you can twirl the wine by the stem to release the aromas without heating up the bowl of the glass with your hands. The tulip shape is a shape that is widely used as an all purpose shape at wine tastings.You can usually find these wine glasses at very reasonable prices in wine stores and kitchen stores. You don’t even need to set foot in the fine crystal stemware store unless you want to.

What temperature should the wine be at? As a general guideline, you should be serving wine at temperatures that are cooler than the room. You have probably heard that red wines should be served at room temperature. But keep in mind that these guidelines evolved from days when many people didn’t keep their rooms at 72 degrees or even hotter. So you may want to chill your red wine for a few minutes to bring it to around 60 to 65 (15 to 18˚ C). Serve heavier white wines at temperatures of around 55˚˚F (12˚C), and sparkling wines around 45˚ (7˚C). If you chill a wine much below these temperatures guidelines, you risk losing the flavor and balance.

Opening the wine: Make sure you remove all the bits of metal foil when you open your bottle of wine or you are bound to get wine drops dribbling onto your tablecloth. Buy the kind of corkscrew that works most easily for you. Don’t fall for snob appeal on this one. If you like a certain type, get it. If the cork does break, you may have to push the remaining part into the bottle. Don’t worry. Just decant the wine into a decanter or jug. If you need to, strain it through a coffee filter from your coffee pot, or a fine mesh strainer.You don’t have to let that champagne cork fly if you twist the bottle slowly and hold the cork to help ease it out. But just in case, angle the bottle away from you, your guests and anything you don’t want broken.

Decanting: Decanting is the pleasant ritual of pouring your wine slowly into another container. It is true that pouring it this way does help aerate the wine. But while it is a pleasant ritual, it is usually unnecessary unless you are serving wines that tend to have sediment, like port.

Pouring: Don’t fill the glass up. Pouring to just over the halfway mark allows the wine to breathe in the glass, and it allows you to swirl the wine around without sloshing it out of the glass. When you are finished pouring, give your wrist a twist like they do in the movies. This helps eliminate those annoying drops, and again, saves your white tablecloth.

Should I serve the wine my guest brought? The wine your guest brings is a gift, so strictly speaking it is up to you whether to serve it or not. Sometimes guests bring bottles that simply don’t go with what you are serving. You can try thanking your guest and saying that you will enjoy their wine the next time you cook (name a suitable dish).

But sometimes there is more than etiquette involved. Sometimes you will sense that courtesy and sensitivity to the guest’s wishes are better guides than being a stickler for the wine guidelines. If your guest will be offended, or is anxious to try the wine he or she brought, you can always put both bottles on the table and let people choose their preference.

Most of the time it will probably be an acceptable wine, and/or your guest will not be offended if you do not open it. So if you have carefully matched your food and wine, serve what you had planned, and serve the guest’s bottle after if you wish, or not at all.



Back from Serving Wine to the Home Page