That sums it up very nicely, following in what a few others said earlier in the thread. If you drop your bottle of 94 Harlan into the self-serve bottles on the counter, then you can’t expect civilians to treat it in any special way.
Either don’t bring it to that occasion, or control the bottle and share modest amounts with everyone who is interested, both civilians and wine lovers. That latter option can be a really cool thing to do, or it might make you seem uptight and high maintenance, the answer is particular to the crowd and event in question.
I’m sure we’ve all done some form of “keep it on the down low and just pour it for certain guests” thing at times in our lives, and it’s not always a big deal, but I think Anthony’s metaphor is pretty apt.
Fortunately, most of my group of friends are at least semi-educated about wine. If there are a few first timers at my house, I do a short stand-up comedic routine about “The Rules”. Makes’em chuckle and feel welcome, but also lets n00bs know what is and isn’t acceptable.
For my money, I tend to pour smaller tastings and explain about the wine, and hopefully they can appreciate it more. As other say, control the amounts and everyone should be happy. The rest of the time I buy 50c wines, throw in cloves and heat them for gulpers.
It varies, but the major points are (a) that everyone is only a guest once and afterwards they’re like family, (b) everyone is welcome to anything and nobody is to protect a bottle once it’s opened because it’s now community property, (c) there are no secrets or off-limits rooms in my house, and (d) if you’re unsure of a wine or beer, try a small pour first. The last rule is known as the “Courtney Rule” because my niece, who is obviously named Courtney, once poured a gargantuan glass of Ponsot because she found out it was expensive, took one sip, scrunched up her nose while proclaiming “eeeeewwwww!!!” in the way only a young blonde can, and dumped it down the kitchen sink… to the horror of everyone within sight.
I have anecdotes of 3 AM refrigerator raids that made the kitchen look like a tribe of Bigfoots stormed the house while everyone else was sleeping, an Olympic medal winning round of quarters and belching (I was first alternate for Atlanta '96), a great story about my brother-in-law and a bottle of Ruffino from the late 80’s, and a few other amusing tales that I use to color the delivery.
I have two strategies. I will be a really interesting wine (at least to me) to a party with wine geeks and gulpers. It typically isn’t very expensive but unique and difficult to get a hold of. That way, if the gulpers grab it, I don’t worry about it and it satisfies the geeks as well.
Or if I do bring a nice bottle, I give the geeks a heads up prior to me opening it and have them line up with me with empty glasses and make sure they get a pour. Then I try to intentionally invite less experienced folks to try it out. We recently converted one of our friends to wine. He used to buy 5 bottles a year and now he buys 10 a month. A 2002 Cristom Eileen’s vineyard was what did it for him. By no means that “special” but cool to me
I don’t even have anything in the leagues you’re talking about (except a couple bottles of d’Yquem) and I generally don’t open anything nice from my cellar except for small gatherings of wine appreciating friends. I usually arrange those occasions, in fact. I personally wouldn’t take a special bottle to a gathering of mixed company, and if I did, I probably wouldn’t let it get more than three feet away from me.
I just save the special bottles for those I know will appreciate it.
When I’m in a more casual setting with people who aren’t in to a wine and don’t understand the social conventions or context of what they are drinking, I opt for cheaper wine. And that’s not to say it’s bad, or uninteresting, just sub $50 and generally replaceable. That way, they can drink as much as they want. Bottle gone? Great, I’ll open another identical bottle.
In those settings, it’s generally about connecting with friends and family, so taking off the wineberserker cap for the night serves me well.
Understanding etiquette is important. The recent NYC Berserkerfest is a great example. Saturday night was hardcore members who are wine serious and more interested in tasting than drinking and want to share. Otherwise how could I have had the chance to try almost every wine at the Burgundy table at the end of the night, 3hrs after the start? Sunday at Jay’s there were a bunch of amateurs or uneducated folks. I saw people taking 5+oz pours of random wines passed around. How are 15-30 people supposed to try a wine if as a couple you pour out 1/4 of the bottle? No notion of sharing or leaving more for others. You learn which bottles to bring and which crowds to circulate with. I am a guest more than a host so I don’t want to demean anyone’s hospitality, but if you’re at a big tasting people should understand that they need to share and leave some for others.
I brought the half bottle of '95 Beaucastel left over from Saturday which most folks didn’t like at PDH. One person drained it in the first half hour I was at Jay’s. 2 people drinking it. I didn’t even get a chance to retry it. SMH. One man’s trash is another man’s treasure.
What about people who take advantage of you, at a byob dinner they know your bringing good wine, this can be especially awkward if you have non friends at your table.
Dont misunderstand my intentions here, for my friends ill share anything its strangers or people i know will not share. If a friend brings a $20 and i bring a $200 bottle ill share without reservation
holy cow… i would not / have not seen a screaming eagle at a ‘bottle out in the open free for all’ type of event.
But overall, if people are comfortable with it, why not? if you aren’t comfortable with it, i would just not bring a screaming eagle to that type of event.
Personally if i was having a $1000+ bottle, there’s probably an occasion designed around the wine.
I have kind of a unique situation that hasn’t been mentioned. Everyone is talking about the wino/gulper dichotomy, what happens when your only wine friends are also inconsiderate guzzlers?
My wife and I are relatively new to wine geekdom (we’ve only been seriously collecting and tasting for ~2 years now), so we don’t know too many people who care about it other than her parents and their close friends who got us into wine. We’ve tried to convert some of our friends (with very modest results). One couple in particular has been really receptive, joining wine clubs, going with us to tastings, the whole nine, even gasp regularly spending upwards of $50-70 on a bottle of wine (not DRC prices or anything but a decent amount for our ages and relative newness to the hobby).
The only problem is, we try and share nice stuff with them since they’re the only ones who would care most of the time, but they gulp like crazy even when we pour the good stuff. Sure sometimes they’ll spend a minute or so doing swirl smell taste talk, but as soon as the formality is over they’ll pour 7 or 8 oz in each of their glasses and kill a bottle without asking if anyone wants another taste. They know how much the stuff we’re pouring costs. We see them at least once a week and it’s getting to the point where we only drink the super nice stuff with my wife’s family since our expectations are similar and we can trust them not to guzzle stuff we open for a “drink and think”. Are we doomed to only drink the good stuff with my wife’s family or alone?
![[cheers.gif]](/uploads/db3686/original/2X/0/0ff9bfcdb0964982cd3240b6159868fbdf215b1a.gif "cheers"){kind=small}