I usually drink less than a bottle a day. But I’ve noticed that I very rarely open a bottle and drink that same wine through the evening. At some point, I want something different. As I own a fair amount of wine as well as a refrigerator, I can start with a white, Rose or bubbly, then open a red or take one from the previous night out of the fridge and get something else in my glass… or vice-versa.
How many different wines do you usually try in a typical night?
Normally, I don’t open more than one bottle, and that means I’ll drink 1/3 of a bottle with dinner. Wine dinners with friends, somewhat infrequent lately, we’ll probably open 4-6 bottles between 3-7 of us.
Unless we’re dining out, a bottle lasts several days at home. We might, on very rare occasions, have 2 different bottles open if my wife wants a white and I want a red. Most times this 2 bottle situation happens when 1 bottle is already open and one of us wants something else the next night or so.
I like to have multiple bottles open to follow as they change over the course of at least a few days, so I voted “2”.
I love having a younger German riesling open for up to a week in the fridge. I’ll have a small glass every day and see how it develops. It’s nice to have such a delicious, thirst quenching drink right after getting home from a long day of work.
A bottle lasts through dinner if it’s just my wife and me. We wouldn’t put away a half-finished dinner bottle because that would mean we’d need to open another bottle. Sometimes we may open something else, like a white, to have after dinner and we may keep half of that bottle to finish later, like I’m doing now.
If there are additional people for dinner, we’ll start with the assumption of a bottle per person and take it from there.
Unless you use a wine preservation system, it’s only feasible to open multiple bottles over several days if they are young (relative to their cellaring potential.) This is even more the case for many whites. A lot of, say, 10 year old whites will fall over after a few days. Of course, there are many exceptions!
Only on the weekends. But when its open its empty a few hours later. I have this weird phobia of it going bad once its open. Very rarely do I open a bottle and then finish it the next day.
Me, or me and the wife I’ll open just one. But even that can be different if it is over a long day with late afternoon cheese then late dinner, etc. Then maybe two or three different bottles.
Other times with more people it could be many, many different bottles. Or, if it is just dinner and a certain wine is working,multiple bottles of the same.
Quite often two but it’s situational. Had clams casino as an app last night so white matched that well but with main of veal, I wanted a red to go with that.
But when its open its empty a few hours later. I have this weird phobia of it going bad once its open. Very rarely do I open a bottle and then finish it the next day.
I would generally agree with that but I’ve found that young whites can often hold up. We never keep anything else open.
Shockingly, having tasted around 6,000 wines in my first year at The Wine Advocate, I would need an option for >16 on average. There are very few days when I don’t taste.
William — it must be hard to do that. I would imagine that wine must often feel like work to you.
When I was an editor at The Hollywood Reporter it was hard for me to just watch a film on a Saturday night at the multiplex with everyone else and not tie it all back into the industry. What was mindless escapism and fun recreation for most often felt like a day at the office.
I missed just going to the movies as a lark. I could imagine wine being like that for you …
Best to you. And, as always, appreciate your continued involvement with this puzzling site!
The wife and I normally share a bottle with dinner. However in the summer we frequently pop a white wine in the late afternoon to enjoy on the deck. This is usually a second bottle.