Recently, a number of Oenophiliacs wrote in and asked us some questions about wine. Jim Bacchvs answers…

Marguerite asks:

We are hosting a welcome dinner for our friends that will be attending our son’s wedding in St. John, Virgin Islands. They will serve prime rib and a fish dish.  I would like to provide each table of 4 with a white and a red wine.  Could you suggest affordable wines for us? There will be about 40 people.I will be grateful for your assistance.

We emailed Marguerite back to ask if she would be buying wine on the island or shipping it from the mainland, as island wine shops might be a bit limited in selection. No answer was forthcoming, so we’ll venture some recommendations here…

Marguerite, 40 is quite a lot of people… and quite a lot of wine. Generally, one bottle serves 4 people — one glass of wine each and a dab more. So if you want everyone in your party to enjoy 4 glasses of wine — one per course in a four-course meal — that’s 40 bottles, easy.

Let’s say we start with a little sparkle, some Champagne or other sparkling wine. On the high end you could go for the industry standard, Veuve Cliquot. But at $30 per bottle, you’re looking at $300. I’d go with a Spanish Cava. Cava’s tend to be dry, inexpensive… and under-rated. Naveran Cava Brut Reserva retails for about $11 per bottle and is quite acceptable.

Moving on to the salad and fish, since you’re in a humid climate, I’d go with a Sauvignon Blanc — light, crisp, dry, with a hint of citrus. Two Angels, a widely available 2006, retails for about $16.

With your prime rib entree I’d start with an Oregon Pinot Noir. Try A to Z pinot from the Willamette Valley, retailing for about $19. (This red is light enough to go also with many fish dishes.)

Lastly, with your beef entree, I’d go for a Bordeaux.Don’t worry. You needn’t spend a firtune to get a decent Bordeaux. The Chateau Mont-Perat 2005 retails for about $21 a bottle and rates well against more expensive competitors.

Wandio asks:
Could you explaine the subject of sulphites in wines and why some inform such and some do not.

Sulfites occur naturally in wine, a byproduct of fermenation. Almost all vintners, however, add additional sulfites to their wines to help them last longer in the bottle — give them more “shelf life.” Sulfites are not known to cause health issues except in people who have an sensitivity or allergic reaction to them. It is a myth the sulfites cause “red wine headache.” Wine headaches are caused by a natural histamine that occurs in wine. 

U.S. law states that wines cannot contain more than 30mg per liter sulphites and wines that contain more than 10mg per liter must label them with the warning “Contains Sulphites.”

Jonathan asks:

Would you like to exchange links with eBacchus?

You bet! We’re honored you thought of us!

Cheers!

—Jim 

Proprietor’s Note: Below is our first column by Jim Bacchvs. Jim, whose portrait you may recognize from our home page, will write about the history and traditions that lie behind wine culture today. Prior to condescending to write for Vinapedia, Jim was a party planner and a minor Roman deity.  

My! How times have changed. Dinner guests of 118 years ago would be shocked — shocked I say — over today’s wine etiquette!

This is from “Gaskell’s Compendium of Forms — Educational, Social, Legal and Commercial” by Prof. G. A. Haskell; published by Standard Publishing Co., Chicago, 1889.

In his chapter on dinner etiquette, he discusses wine:

At small dinner parties, or ordinary family dinners, all wines are put upon the table, and each guest must help the lady next to him and himself, and then pass the decanter. At the best or large dinner parties wine must be brought and handed around by the servants; the taste for light wines, which is now prevalent, makes a variety indispensable. There must be provided sauterne and sherry for fish and soup; with the joints the choice of Hock, Chablis and one or two kinds of claret; with game, Burgundy may be given, and there should be port on the table for the few who choose to take it at this time. Then the “ladies’ wines,” as they are sometimes called, still or sparkling Champagne and Moselle. For dessert, provide Port, Sherry, Madeira and Claret. Port accompanies cheese.

Hock, Champagne, Moselle and Chablis, and some few other wines are brought to the table in bottle, the choice varieties of Claret in the basket in which they are imported; Port, Sherry and Madeira are decantered; ordinary Clarets and Burgundy wines are handed around in Claret jugs, either of glass or silver.

With regards to wine etiquette at the table:
- Never hold a wineglass by the bowl, but by the stem.
- Never drink a glass full of wine at a time, nor drain the last drop.
- Never propose a toast, nor drink another’s health; this old time practice is out of fashion.
- Never drink from a glass without first wiping the mouth with a napkin, and also after drinking.
- Never speak of sherry or port as sherry wine or port wine.
- Never take but one kind of wine at dessert.

Bit stuffy, what? But very interesting, especially the line, “…then the ‘ladies’ wines,’ as they are sometimes called, still or sparkling Champagne and Moselle.” Ladies’ wines? Still champagne?  And what the heck is Hock? Plenty of material for more columns there!

This knowledge, by the way, comes to us from professional paper pusher, M.G. Mattis, who also happens to be The Proprietor’s father. Vinapedia.net = Nepotism “R” Us!

—Jim Bacchvs