A particular annoyance when it comes to the "proper" way to serve wine is the inverted-cone-shaped trinket called a Sherry glass, which cannot hold much more than an ounce and a half without spilling. When Sherry is served, most people want at least two full ounces or none at all. This abominable, widely-used ornament is the reason hardly anybody ever orders Sherry in a restaurant or bar, where the price charged is excessive but the portion served in this exasperating little glass is skimpy.
Despite the foregoing tirade, it must be admitted that our eyes condition our taste buds and that consequently a nice Grenache does taste better when sipped from a thin, long-stemmed, crystal-clear glass than from a tin cup or a kitchen tumbler. You are likely to avoid the eggshell-thin, long-stemmed kinds which break too easily. But most important is to avoid the glasses that are too small to provide a decent-sized serving.
The best example of eye appeal is furnished by the hollow-stemmed Champagne glass. The tiny protuberance at the bottom of the hollow stem causes the wine's bubbles to cascade pleasingly upward long after the wine in the bowl has ceased to sparkle.
The seemingly excessive rule of wine ritual--correct table setting--originated with the formal banquets of an earlier century. If you have time to fuss with details, and are serving several different wines at a dinner, this provides an opportunity to put on a pretentious display of how much stemware you possess. At each diner's right place two or three glasses (no more; guests need elbow room). Each successive wine is poured into the glass closest to the table's edge. When that particular wine is finished, the glass is usually removed.
A common question is whether to include the water glass when setting the table to include wine. Since Americans are habituated to ice water with their meals, it cannot very well be omitted; but it is recommended to not fill the water glass unless the guest wishes it. In European homes, a bottle of water is usually available for guests who wish to dilute their wine, particularly if it is a heavy Cabernet or Zinfandel.
Once at a banquet of gourmets, who regard water as fit only for bathing; diners were surprised to see pitchers of that tasteless liquid placed in the center of the table. A closer look disclosed several goldfish swimming in each pitcher-- an eloquent expression of the dinner committee's opinion on the subject.
A second rule--that nobody may smoke where wine is being served--belongs to groups such as the Wine and Food Society and nowhere else. Except among professional wine tasters who must keep their palates keen, because their job is to detect flaws in wines rather than to enjoy them, this taboo is plainly silly. There is plenty of smoking at banquets in the wine countries of Europe.
A third ritual, the decanting, is sometimes necessary if you are serving an extremely old red wine, in order to avoid pouring sediment into the guests' glasses. But in recent years leading vintners, both in America and in Europe, have learned to stabilize their Chardonnay before shipment; and only very rarely do you now find a bottle containing the sediment or crust (consisting of grape solids) which some wines deposit with great age.
If you ever have occasion to perform the decanting rite, do it before the guests arrive. Gently pour the wine from the original bottle into a decanter in front of a candle flame. When the light discloses tiny fragments of sediment swimming by, that is the point at which to stop pouring.
Another way to avoid putting mud into your guests' glasses is to lay the venerable bottle on its side in one of those metal or wicker ware wine cradles. By careful handling the contents can be poured without disturbing the sediment. It is ornamental, but unnecessary, to use a cradle to serve a wine that is perfectly clear.
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