Wines should slowly build, like a piece of music

You're taking your honey on a hot date and you decide to try the fabulous new restaurant in town. As you sit down your waiter drops a tome on the table that lands with a bigger thud than the Sunday New York Times.

"Would you like to choose a wine?" he chirps helpfully. You eye the tome and your officious waiter, and mutter "two beers please."

It doesn't have to be this way. Embarrassment and shame do not need to be part of a pleasant dining experience. So here's how to handle the situation so your waiter, and your honey, think you're the suavest guy this side of this side of the Atlantic.

First, take your time. This is not a race. Order a couple of glasses of bubbly while you and your partner peruse the menu, and the wine list. Doesn't have to be expensive. Ask for some prosecco, that delightfully dry and fruity bubble from Italy. Or Spanish "cava" which is often reasonable and appetite stimulating. This will get the conversation flowing.

Next make some food decisions. Appetizers? Mains? Desserts? Think of the meal as a symphony of flavours, building a crescendo then slipping into a slow diminuendo. You see where this leads. Ordering one-size-fits-all wines to sip through the meal us as effective as ordering a big tumbler of scotch to wash down every course. Coarse!

Now, after you and your dinner mate have made some food choices, it's time to flip to the "wines by the glass" section, because every course deserves its own wine flavours. This also allows you and your dinner mate to experience different wines with every course and to share sips. Wine is, after all, about educational experiences, and sampling six wines instead of three makes for a rich experience.

Now call that snooty waiter back. Place a food order for all your courses, then with an eye to the "by the glass" list, ask for some recommendations for pairing with the different first courses you and your mate have chosen. This is where a good waiter can really earn his tip. He should know the wine list front to back, especially the wines he's pouring by the glass. Get two different glasses. You know the pairing principles:  whites with lighter fare, reds with heavier. Also you want lighter wines earlier and heavier later. He'll know this too, and should make appropriate suggestions. Don't let him bully you into the $20 a glass listings. A casual, "that's a bit rich for our budget" will tip him off to keep his suggestions closer to $10. And leave it at the first course, nursing your bubbly and awaiting your first hand-chosen delights. Oh, and ask him to leave the wine list so you can digest it at a leisurely pace.

Now you've got the rhythm, and your waiter is trained to be looking for novel affordable wine choices for upcoming courses.

After you've finished the first course, open the wine list so when he comes to clear he'll know you're looking for another selection. This time you might make some suggestions, a la "I was thinking of the Pinot Noir to go with the duck. Is that what you would suggest?" This puts the waiter on notice that you are a knowledgable wine consumer, and he might just pull a blockbuster out of his cellar in response.

Also one word of warning: when he suggests a red wine, ask if it was opened that night. Red wines opened the night before will sometimes oxidize. Good restaurants always taste their opened wines at the beginning of the night to make sure they're still fresh. Unscrupulous restauranteurs sometimes serve oxidized wines in their by-the-glass programs because of cost.

By now the rhythm is set. Your waiter  will anticipate your choices and, if he's skilled, offer interesting and informed options. You and your dining partner will have a rich dining experience, and taste some wines you wouldn't have if you'd just ordered that same old bottle of Okanagan Merlot.

The result, of course, is that the meal will cost more, because wine by the glass is always more expensive than by the bottle. And you'll probably drink less for the same reason. But that's not such a bad thing, is it?

Cheers!

Keith

Keith Watt is proprietor at Morning Bay Winery on Pender Island, BC