So what is the proper way it works in this situation?

So last night hubby and I went to dinner at a “friends” house. So basically I was not looking forward to the evening as these people are actually clients who are really trying to befriend us for some reason. Nice people, I just don’t click with them really. This is the third time for dinner at their house, we have never reciprocated the invite just because we were trying to get them to cool on this friendship. But we went and decided to just relax and enjoy.
I made a dessert to bring and on the way out the door grabbed a chilled bottle of a nice white, not anything too fancy but something I thought would be interesting to have. We walk in and do the greetings and I hand the wine to the husband. He takes the bottle, sticks it in the fridge and pulls out a bottle of Charles Shaw white and opens it. I had a glass and then switched to water for the rest of the night.
Being new to wine I wondered what the proper way this works, is it customary to do that? I’ve had a few gatherings recently with my more wine savvy friends and when they came in with a bottle I asked them if they wanted to open it or would they like to look at what I had and choose. Frequently we end up opening what they’ve brought and trying something we had which makes it fun.
Oh and then when all was said and done my hubby tells me that when the wife and I were in the kitchen chatting and making coffee the husband was hinting around about us hiring him .

When I bring wine to someone’s house, I assume I’m bringing a present, to be opened later. I assume the hosts have already picked the wine they want to serve.
If I’m bringing wine and I want it opened, I discuss that ahead of time.

Thanks for the response, Peter. I guess the friends who I’ve had over brought wine with the intention of drinking and commenting on. It wasn’t discussed or anything just was. Since I was a beer person until very recently it never came up. My other friends that we hang with are the type that we just know that we are going to want to try a few options so we all try to bring something fun.

Without a prior agreement I agree with Peter. That being said there are some friends that we meet up with on occasion that understand that we will bring a wine to drink that night. I really prefer that arrangement since they are somewhat less picky about the wine they serve than I.

For wine interested friends, a bottle, or bottles, I bring ususally get opened, but not always; at some friends the other night we stuck with their chilled Oz Riesling and then switched to a S. Rhône (several bottles of each). The Champagne I brought never got opened, but that was fine since a present is a present.

what Peter said–I usually ask in advance if I can bring the wine. Other times, I put a bottle in a gift bag, knowing it won’t be opened. Sorry you got Charles Shaw!

We’ve had it go either way. My suggestion is not to expect anything, unless you have a prior arrangement or habit with the people. In many cases people take it as a gift, for later use, but certainly not always–for instance yesterday afternoon we brought a bottle to my son and DIL. I had vaguely assumed they would put it on the shelf, but instead they opened it and we all had some. Just how they were feeling, I think.

Social convention dictates the bottle is a gift for the host(ess) and they are under no obligation to open it.

Coincidentally we’re about to head to a brunch with a couple that will do exactly this, and I purchased a “special” bottle of cheap sparkling wine from Trader Joe’s just for the occasion.

Better hope you’re right!

+1 to what Peter said. Especially if they’re not wine geeks. If they are, the usual response upon being presented with a bottle is, “Should we open this now?” or something of the sort. Now that you’re into wine, better get used to realizing that 95% of the people drink plonk.

And they’re quite happy with that.

Nothing a good dose of OJ won’t fix

Thanks all for the insight, this is why I’m asking here I figured you’d set me right! I guess in the future I could bring a bottle in a gift bag. I will reserve the chilled stuff for my friends who will want to explore. I guess I get a bit fussy about it as I only allow myself to have alcohol on Friday and Saturday nights so wasting one night on something I don’t want to drink is a bummer.
My group that I hang out with would be considered wine geeks to most thinking about it. So my introduction to this world has been with people who most definitely don’t drink plonk. I am learning so much from berserkers, thanks all for helping me not look like an ignorant buffoon .

We have friends that like to drink good, but reasonably priced wines. I will usually bring an assortment to satisfy various taste preferences, mostly Rhone styles. We always have more bottles than we drink, so we just exchange what is left. For a more open gathering, I just bring something nice and taste whatever is open.

In all seriousness the mistake was accepting invitation #3. I’ll meet almost anyone twice (we did immediately excommunicate a couple shortly after our move up here to OR - ten minutes into an informal dinner was all that took) but after that there has to be real friendship to continue. Life is too short.

This is a “real names” board, right?

We’re not supposed to be hiding behind pseudonyms, right?

Maybe y’all figure that some of these people are just too stupid to use Google?

We open everything!!!

Google is the reason why some of us try to reveal only a somewhat mangled version of our names. But, if someone invites me to dinner then googles my name to see what I’m saying about it, I have no problem with them reading what I type here. Honestly I doubt they’d be interested enough to bother.

I guess that’s a good way to see it. I don’t think it would be at the top of their priority list to google us, we are pretty boring as folks go.

Well he sure ain’t gonna wanna work for your husband if he stumbles upon this thread.

Lol, true! And technically he wouldn’t be working for my husband.