The principal hands you a bottle from the back of the cellar. It is older than you are and the sediment is a finger thick. Twelve people are sitting down in forty minutes. What you do next is either quietly competent, or an expensive mistake in front of company.
Wine service at a formal dinner
- Present the bottle to the host, label toward them, before opening. Let them read and confirm it.
- Open at a side table or on a coaster, not over the guest.
- Offer the host a taste. The taste is to check the wine is sound, not to see whether they like it.
- Pour from the right, glass on the table, bottle not touching the rim. Do not lift the guest's glass.
- Fill sensibly — roughly a third of a large glass for red, a little less for a big Burgundy bowl. A full glass is a service error.
- Serve in the order the house sets — commonly guest of honour, then round, host last.
- Whites and Champagne in an ice bucket or a wine fridge; keep the bottle wrapped in a service cloth.
- Never top up a glass that has been left, and never refill without a glance for consent.
Decanting
Decanting does two jobs, and you should know which one you are doing:
- Separating wine from sediment — old reds, vintage port
- Aeration — young, tight, tannic wines that need air to open
The procedure for sediment:
- Stand the bottle upright for hours, ideally a day, so the sediment settles to the base
- Open carefully; do not shake it
- Pour slowly and continuously into the decanter over a light source — a candle or a torch
- Stop the moment the sediment reaches the neck. Sacrifice the last centimetre; do not chase it
- Serve from the decanter; keep the bottle beside it so guests can see what they are drinking
Old wine can fade fast in the decanter. If in doubt, decant later, not earlier, and ask the principal what they prefer — many have strong views.
Port and the close of dinner
- Port is decanted and set beside the host
- The host serves the guest on their right, then passes the decanter to their own left and it continues clockwise around the table
- It does not go back the other way; a guest who wants a second glass waits for the next round
- The convention is British, sociable, and taken seriously by people who care about it — and mystifying to guests who do not. Never correct or tease a guest who passes it the wrong way. You simply keep it moving.
Cheese, dessert, coffee and digestifs
- Cheese board presented with the knives kept apart for hard, soft and blue; offer the guest a choice rather than cutting for them
- Crumb down before dessert
- Coffee, tea and digestifs are usually taken away from the table — a change of room is part of the evening
- Offer water with digestifs, always, and without comment
Onboard Notes
If a bottle is old, rare, or unfamiliar, ask the Chief Stew or the principal before you touch it. Nobody has ever been sacked for asking; people have been sacked for guessing.