Want your dinner to be supremely festive? Then, instead of the still wines, offer a choice of Champagne and Sparkling Burgundy. An extra fillip, to backtrack a course or two, is to serve a special wine with the soup. This presents no problem: the wine that goes with any soup—so well, indeed, that the best canned soups already contain some—is Sherry.
When it comes to dessert, the choice is also easy, because most desserts are sweet, and so are dessert wines such as Port, Tokay, Muscatel, Cream Sherry, and the various berry wines. If you happen to encounter an especially delicious, extra-sweet Sauterne, you will enjoy that with dessert, too.
The members of my family like assorted cheeses at the end of a meal. We find that some of our guests enjoy a hearty dry red wine such as Cabernet Franc (http://www.wineaccess.com/wine/grape/Cabernet%20Franc/) as the accompaniment, while others prefer red Port. Moving on to the bridge table, which also gets exercise some afternoons, there are many wines to sip between bids.
Cool White Port, Cream Sherry, the sweet Concord and berry wines, and those flavored specialties already mentioned are all especially popular here. A mixture of Sauvignon Blanc (http://www.wineaccess.com/wine/grape/Sauvignon%20Blanc/) and lemon juice became the standard afternoon bridge drink in one California suburban community a few years back.
For guests who just drop in casually, afternoon or evening, the bridge-table beverages will also do. In hot, stuffy summer weather, however, serve them either chilled Rose or a Wine Cooler. The latter can be anything you feel like mixing, from the simple spritzer (white wine and seltzer) to wine lemonade (lemonade with red wine or Rose added), to the various wine punches that you usually can pick up at your beverage store.
In recent years many people have discovered that any wine can be mixed with any kind of sweet soda pop (especially the lemon-flavored ones) and served as a delicious light highball. Wine for the barbecue is easily chosen. Again it is Rose or any red dinner wine. If you prefer to serve white wine with those sizzling, charcoal-broiled chickens, bring out a tub of ice to keep the bottles well chilled in hot weather.
The amazing versatility of wine extends to cold winter nights also. A traditional warmer-upper in the ski country is hot mulled wine: sweetened red wine such as Grenache or Pinot Noir spiced with cloves and lemon peel, warmed and served with cinnamon sticks. Also available are hot buttered wine, Sherry Tom and Jerry, and others for this purpose.
How about quantity punches for parties? The best known, of course, is Champagne Punch. But here we must protest; there can be no excuse for wasting good Champagne in a mixture where this effervescent wine loses its identity and where bubbles can be gotten much more cheaply from sparkling water.
Use still wines to mix the punch; then add club soda, and finally a single bottle of Champagne for the use of its glamorous name. Punch recipes, with ingredients such as sherbets, frozen concentrates, canned juices, and fresh fruits, are available by the score.
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