Easy solution - open and decant wines from your cellar before guests arrive. That way, you have an excuse to not open a lousy wine brought as a gift. Of course, graciously thank the guest for bringing the wine.
Then, afterwards, use the gift wine for cooking. Liver capacity and health is too precious to spend on something you don’t want to drink.
Educate the guests. I know a lot of people with a lot of money but bad taste in wine. They always appreciate insights into better wines.
Friends don’t let friends bring Orin Swift
Be friend them in a hurry. Interesting enough I know a guy in Minneapolis that drinks a ton of great wines but for some reason loves Orin and Caymus.
I went to see family friends for the holiday and took over a bunch of orphan/sole survivor stemware to use during the day…and left them there.
Take No Prisoners!
That’s what Julia Child always said.
Actually, the reply was out of order. She always said you should only use wine to cook with that you would want to drink.
There’s no such thing as bad wine may be the most astonishing declaration on this forum since the great change.
When I invite people for dinner, I make it clear as part of the invite that I am providing the wines for the night, which I always have opened and decanted before anyone arrives. Sometimes, people still bring a bottle of wine as a gift, but I don’t open it, unless it looks like I need to open another bottle of wine, then I ask if I can open the bottle they brought. Conversely, when I am invited to dinner at someone’s house, I ask if I can bring the wine for dinner as part of my contribution for the evening, which is typically accepted. I am not aware that this is a problem for anyone 
Somehow none of my friends have never noticed that I donate a lot of Caymus to raffles, auctions, etc and never actually have any Caymus in my house. If they noticed, they’d probably stop bringing them as host gifts.
OK, but you obviously have a better “class” of friends than I do. Apart from 1 friend that will bring a bottle of port or Calvados, I get the equivalent of Woodbridge low end Beringer.
Not sure how they would fair at Auction 
Or a vinegar crook.
We are in the same boat. Almost all of the wine my friends bring over is grocery store wine. At least if it was Caymus It would mean they made a concerted effort to find a known wine.
That said I do have a couple non-wine friends who do try to stop by an actual wine shop on the way over. I really, really appreciate their effort.
Was looking at a recent auction and the Caymus wines were getting lots of action. Never underestimate the power of the marketing department in the liquor industry.
Too pragmatic for WB.
First time guests, unless I know their wine appreciation/knowledge beforehand, don’t open/decant wines before they arrive. The gift wine can be used as a gauge. For the grocery store low end gift, I’d still open nice bottles but I wouldn’t be pulling (and literally wasting) expensive/aged top shelf stuff if they don’t have the experience to appreciate it.
If the gift wine was intended to be opened at some point during the night, I’m in the camp of opening and pouring everyone a glass as quickly as possible. If it’s truly undrinkable, take a bathroom break 15 minutes in and pour 2/3 into the toilet.
Exactly. If you bring the host a gift, it now belongs to the host, and he or she can choose to open it right then, save it, or do anything else with it.
If you expect the host to open it for the group that night, you should say so up front, but then it should still be up to the host to decide.
I periodically box up wines I got as gifts and take them to my parish for the priests to have. They always seem to appreciate it, they don’t go to waste, I don’t feel guilty about dumping them, it feels like a good solution for my personally. Or maybe you have a friend, neighbor, coworker etc who might appreciate them.
I often bring two, one as a gift for the host and another as something to share (often opened already). That seems to go over fine.
