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Wine is poured as soon as food is brought to
the table
 It is the host, rather than the hostess, who
serves the wine and sees to it that glasses are replenished all
during the meal.
The glasses are never filled. They are served
only half-full.
The proper etiquette of wine serving and wine
drinking is one of informality and complete ease. Connaisseurs
are not self-conscious about their enthusiastic feelings for
wine.
The host is justly proud of offering a good
French wine; he holds the bottle with the label up so that the
guests may have a look at it (of course he never wraps it
in a towel). He is not bashful about asking for comments or
making his own, and the guests do not hesitate to comment on
what they are drinking.
For those who know anything at all about the
art of French wine-making, and about the people who practice it.
each bottle of French wine tells a tale of years of battling
against nature; months of anxiety during which the toils and
income of a whole year may be lost by unfavorable weather; years
of tender care for the new wine so as to bring it to its
blossoming maturity.
Most of the time. wine growing and wine
making have been carried on in
France by successive generations of the same families.
These families feel that they have a
tradition and a reputation to uphold -- one they must pass
intact to future generations.
Each region, district, parish and
estate in the wine producing sections of France. produces a
distinctive wine with characteristics which cannot be duplicated
anywhere, not even in another part of France itself.
So. there are many experiments and many
comments to be made in the matter of French wines. and people
who appreciate the finer things in life place as much emphasis
on good wine as on good food, or ail other aspects of gracious
living.
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