How to Bring the Wine to the Party and Present It

Okay, so now you have your bottle in tow. You’re ready to bask in the glow of gratitude and awe from your hosts. But you need to give the wine deference as well and carry it with its due respect. Treat the bottle of wine like it was your baby. Would you carry your baby around by its neck? No, you would cradle your baby gently in your arm. So don’t grab and hold your wine bottles by the neck either. Show those child rearing skills and cradle that bottle of wine!

When you present the wine, do it with a flourish so the host knows that you made a serious decision in choosing this particular bottle of wine for them and this occasion. Indeed, this was not a flippant choice, so carry yourself and the wine accordingly.

Also, understand that wine is volatile. Try not to jostle it too much. Repeated and long-term jarring can affect the wine significantly. Sounds sissy but it’s true. So be gentle with the wine.

Know something about the wine that you’re buying. Basically, read the back of the label. You can get a lot of information from there to impress your friends. (And seriously, who reads the back of a wine bottle anyways?)

Things you can learn from the back of the wine bottle:

The different grapes in the wine
“Did you know that this blend is unique because it has 80% Caberet Sauvignon and 20% Syrah?”

The climate of that given year
“It was particularly cool in Napa in ’05 so they had to harvest earlier that year.”

Characteristics of the wine
“You should be able to immediately smell the strawberries and stewed plums on the nose.”

The winemaker’s history and style
“The winemaker studied in Burgundy for a few years and that affected how he makes his wines.”

You are starting to sound like you know something!

(On a side note, hold wine glasses properly. This is a pet peeve of mine, and hopefully it will anger you too when you see people hold wine glasses incorrectly. All you need to know now is that you hold the wine glass by the stem. That’s why it’s there. Don’t hold the bowl of the glass – that warms the wine. So please, if I haven’t taught you anything else here, in the very least, hold the wine glass correctly. Please.)

Wine Occasion: Thanksgiving

I love Thanksgiving. The whole family is around, with three football games on the tube, and a big fat turkey (hopefully either brined or deep fried). With stuffing. Lots of stuffing.

For any Thanksgiving dinner, there really is only one wine to choose. This wine is affordable, has a great story, pairs well with turkey, and is seasonably ready for Thanksgiving. This wine is… Beaujolais Nouveau.

Is it sacrosanct to suggest a French wine for an American institution like Thanksgiving? I don’t’ think so, considering that Thanksgiving was originally celebrated by British immigrants (by way of Netherlands) with Native Americans. But that’s another story for another time…

Beaujolais Nouveau is made with gamay grapes in Beaujolais, France (it’s north of Lyon and part of the Burgundy region). It’s released on the third Thursday of November, just in time for Turkey Day. It’s dry, fruit forward, and ready to drink immediately.

Wine Suggestion:

Georges Duboeuf Beaujolais Nouveau

Wine Occasion: Dinner Party / Housewarming Party

We can all agree that the only possible gift to bring to a dinner party is a bottle of wine. Anything short of that just won’t cut it. How about a bottle of Jack Daniels? Only if you are rocking leather chaps, dirt under your nails, and an uncontrollable beard. A six pack of Zima? You missed by a decade.

Face it – your friends are now sophisticated enough to have a place worthy of a dinner party, so they’ve probably left their sloppy evenings in the past. You should too and join everyone into maturity. To that end, let’s get drunk on wine.

Wine Suggestions:

$ White – Kim Crawford Sauvignon Blanc

We’re going international with this selection, to New Zealand. New Zealand offers world class Sauvignon Blanc, and some find that this is the purest form of Suavignon Blanc. As I mentioned before, Suavignon Blanc is a great selection for lighter food, so you can pair your New Zealand Sauvignon Blanc with the salad course. I’m sure that everyone else brought Napa Cap to the shindig, so everyone can drink that with the main course.

$ Red – Greg Norman Shiraz

Australia is making wines at a never-seen-before pace, and its annual wine production now compares to Italy and France. And some of it is actually good! Just kidding – Australia is renowned for its Shiraz (Australian for Syrah), with a flavor profile of luscious stone fruits and big body.

$$ White – Perrier Jouet Grand Brut Champagne

You might notice the strategy with my white wine selections for the dinner party is to have my wines consumed early in the meal. By bringing Champagne, everyone at the party will be consuming your Champagne as an appertif. You have unofficially served as the master of ceremonies, kicking things off with a great bottle of Champagne while regaling everyone of your jaunt through north France in your teens, picking grapes for the great Champagne houses by day and seducing widowed Champagne house owners by night. Or you can say that you thought that this bottle of Perrier Jouet looked cool because of all the pretty flowers on it.

$$ red – Ruffino Riserva Ducale Oro Chianti

Chianti is an Italian wine made from Sangiovese grapes. It pairs well with many foods and again, you get to appear continental. You can even make references to that summer you spent in the Tuscan countryside, picking grapes and making olive oil. But I digress. You typically should avoid the traditional chianti bottles in the straw basket – Italian men don’t wear handlebar moustaches anymore so you can buy modern Chianti.