As I’m nearing my mid twenties, I notice a lot of my friends starting to enjoy fine dining a lot more. It could be for a great number of reasons including the image factor, trying new things and being more refined, or they just have too much money to spend. Whatever the reason is, you’re probably going to end up in a classy type of place at least once in your life. What do classy people drink with dinner? It’s not beer on tap, it’s not even beer in a bottle. If you said wine, pat yourself on the back.
Truth be told, I’m not much of a wine drinker. I don’t mind the taste but I probably couldn’t tell you the difference between a fine bottle of wine and wine from a box. The key to not looking like a fool at dinner is faking it.
First thing you should probably know is which wine goes with which food. The general rule is, red wine goes with red meat and white wine goes with poultry or seafood. Also don’t forget that red wine is served warm, and white whine is served chilled. Now what if you order pork? I don’t even know myself, I’ll just drink what someone else is drinking. Since you’re faking it and probably don’t know anything about wine, talk someone who is planning on ordering something similar to what you’re eating into ordering a bottle of wine and not just a glass for themselves. Also, don’t be afraid to ask the server what they like but don’t ask them what they recommend. The difference is with one they’ll tell you a wine and the other they’ll ask for more input. Asking you for more input is bad because you know nothing of wine, they’ll ask you things like do you prefer a cabernet sauvignon, a merlot or a bunch of other stuff you won’t understand. Now what if your server doesn’t drink wine? Look at the wine list and look at the most expensive wine, not pick something that’s 2-4 below that one.
When the server comes back with the bottle that was ordered, they’ll show the bottle to whoever ordered it. I’m assuming that’s to see if it’s the right wine. Then the server will open the bottle with the label always facing the person that ordered it, and proceed to pour a small amount in their glass. This is the taste test to see if it’s good. The server will usually wait for a sign of approval before pouring the wine out. After this you’re pretty much in the clear.
Always hold the wine glass by the stem to avoid warming the wine. Every now and then you’ll see someone swirling the wine in their glass. That’s done to help release the flavour, you should swirl it too. be careful not to swirl it too hard and have the wine come out of the glass. They’ll either think you’re drunk or that you know nothing of wine, which is what we’re trying to avoid.
Now go ahead bring the wine glass up to your mouth and pause just long enough to take a sniff of the wine. Take your first sip of the wine, what do you think? It’s kind of an acquired taste and I find that wine doesn’t really quench my thirst when eating, but give an approving nod anyways as you inspect your glass. I usually toss in a, “Wow, that is really great wine.” Someone will almost always respond and add some input, remember what they say. It can come in handy for future use. Remember, wine is sipped and never chugged like beer.
The key to faking it is not to draw too much attention to yourself. Don’t toss in too many compliments about the wine or people who actually know wine will start to realize how just off base you are about it. Try to avoid engaging in any more conversations of the wine after the initial compliment. Just always hold the glass by the stem, sip the wine and put the glass back down. Every now and then swirl the wine in the glass. That’s all that’s left to do until dinner’s over or the wine bottle is finished.
If you’ve made it through your first wine drinking experience and no one’s caught you yet, let me be the first to congratulate you. It’s not as hard as you think, the toughest part is getting the wine down your throat if you don’t like the taste of it. Fake it enough times and I’m sure you’ll grow to tolerate the taste and maybe even discover some bottles of wine that you actually like.
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