Serving wine

Wine is served before each dish, and ladies are served first. This allows guests to taste the wine on its own, and then with the dish. Glasses should be filled halfway and should never be left empty.

The wine should be uncorked a short time before the meal is served, allowing the wine to breathe.

A prestigious vintage wine should be decanted into a carafe to avoid sediment settling at the bottom of the glasses.

Several utensils are required to serve wine successfully:
- a good corkscrew,
- a carafe to decant the wine,
- a wine bucket to serve it at the correct temperature,
- the right type of glass for the wine being served.

  Choosing the right wine at the right time

For special meals, such as for celebrations or holidays, it is customary to serve several wines, finishing with the rarest.
The current tendency is to limit this to one or two wines per meal.
The general rule was to serve white wine with fish and red wine with meat (nowadays it is perfectly acceptable to serve a light chilled red wine with fish).


  Serving rules

Wines should be served in order according to the following rules :
- white wine before red, a full-bodied wine follows a light wine,
- you should accompany complicated dishes with simple wine,
- complex wine accompanies simple dishes,
- full-bodied wine accompanies spicy dishes,
- young fruity wine accompanies sweet and sour dishes,
- a dish with a wine-based sauce should be accompanied by the same or a similar wine,
- the wine with the most character wine is served with the cheese,
- you should not serve fine wine with salad and vegetables served in vinaigrette.