If you bring a special bottle to an offline as the owner of the wine who might have had it for years or decades is it expected you get a bigger pour of your wine compared to others ? or should all pours be equal ? what if the bottle is above its class and price point does that change anything ? ie you brought SE everyone else brought BTK cabs
I was at a wine dinner with a guy who brought a bottle of Grange. He poured about a quarter of the bottle in his glass and then passed it around the table of eight. I knew immediately I would never share a table with him again. The only classy thing to do is share the bottle equally.
Pretty unequivocally for me here: what you bring, you share…equally. If the owner acts out of accord with that principle, then I’d not want them in my group.
The obvious solution is to bring a wine that you think will have the least cachet of anything there. That way you’re guaranteed to be on the winning side of this trade.
It’s Christmas Eve so I’m fighting back the response the question deserves. Suffice to say that “mine’s bigger” is not an offline theme that appeals me.
Don’t brings wines to dinner you do not want to share equally. If you have something you want to sit with while enjoying a generous pour, don’t bring it to a dinner where you cannot do that without looking like you are hoarding.
For me, offlines are about sharing with each other, so the thought of what is described seems the very opposite of the concept of an offline.
However, should that person feel strongly about it, I’d recommend they buy a coravin, pungo or similar, then at the offline take another bottle along as normal, but also offer the half-finished & re-sealed ‘fancy’ bottle around as a bonus taste. They get more than their full glass out of the bottle, yet will also come across as especially generous (rather than the opposite).