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When
there is a Wine Party there is French Wine
There are French
wines for each occasion and each budget. Whether it is a formal
or an informal dinner, a family meal. a picnic or a barbecue,
French wine makes it “something special" and worth remembering.
Formal Dinners
Formal dining calls
for French wines. The more formal the greater the number of
courses, the more elaborate the food, the greater the wine.
One wine may be
served at any and all occasions ...but there is no reason to
serve only one wine at a formal dinner and there are many
reasons why at least two are desirable.
 The number of guests
usually included in a formal dinner makes it necessary to serve
more than one bottle. Therefore, there is no savings in buying
two or more bottles of the same wine.
More elaborate food
is best with just the right wine. It is much to the credit of
the host and it is a delicate compliment to the good taste of
the guests, to present with each course a wine especially
selected for its affinities with the dish.
An array of wine
glasses, a different French wine with each course - all this
greatly contributes to the aura of formality and festivity.
Formal dining is the
occasion to serve the greatest French wine which can be
afforded. When more than one wine is served, however, the
discriminating host is careful to present them in a progressive
order, building up his guests' interest from the light-bodied,
young wines, to the full-bodied, old ones.
Informal Dinners
A wine glass at the side of a water goblet, a
bottle of French wine on the table, and already a glow of
anticipation appears on every face. "What is the big occasion?"
The big occasion may be only a dinner made with special care;
the getting together of people dear to each other. It may well
be no more than "I just felt like it ...".
Whatever the reason, the mood is set and what
may not have started out to be a "big occasion" will then become one.
At informal dinners, most of the time only
one wine is served.
However, without excessive lavishness the
dinner may be made perfect by serving, with the dessert. a small
glass of one of the sweet wines of France. These wines are
better appreciated when drunk well chilled in very small
quantity. Half a bottle is largely enough to brighten the last
course of a dinner of six.
Fine regionals or parish wines are well
suited to informal dining.
Barbecues and Picnics
A glass of good red French wine is just
the thing with a luscious steak or a juicy hamburger. An
honest meat loaf becomes a gourmet's treat with an inexpensive
French red wine.
A dry white wine does wonders for a “Shore
Dinner". Fish, lobster and shrimp grilled over glowing coals,
are superb with French white wines.
 Even
when many different foods are served, as is usually the case, no
more than one kind of wine is ordinarily presented. A French
rosé wine or a dry white wine is always right.
A young regional red wine also goes very well
with barbecue or picnic dishes. Served with an outdoor meal,
such a young red wine is often more enjoyable when it is cooled.
The easiest way to cool it is to let the bottle stand for a
couple of hours in a bucket or a pail of cold water.
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