Originally Posted by kaukau

My bolding.

OK. Since this thread is about business dining dos and donts, I guess one would most likely always do a tasting since it is a formal occasion.

Now, when out to dinner with the wife: while I don't disagree with you, never is a strong term. Take the Babich Sauvignon Blanc 2005 for example: we drink it at home; we drink it at restaurants: its inexpensive, delicious, can't be "corked", (doesn't use one!) (and I don't mean bits and pieces either), and dozens of bottles have given us extreme confidence in each bottle's integrity. After quaffing what seems like cases of the stuff..... .the leap from a "sniff and a nod" to "Please pour....we trust this bottle" is not entirely without merit for us, or a wine such as this. It's not that big a leap of faith either: I mean, out of hundreds and hundreds of bottles ordered in restaurants, I think I may have been served one white that had madeirized, and one red that had turned. If memory serves, the red was a '76 Ch. Ducru Beaucaillou.

(Speaking only for myself, now, and not really giving advice, modern vinification and transportation techniques, and innovations in the winemaking industry have, IME, made bad bottles of young wines that are ready to drink rare as hen's teeth, and the tasting ritual often more of a formality than a necessity.)

But for a wine with which one is not on intimate terms; or a fragile red; or an older white; or a celebratory wine; or the majority of all wines one orders in a formal setting, a tasting is certainly 100% de rigeur.

I guess I'm just trying to say that as I've gotten older and more confident in the integrity of the wines I order, I've personally found little problem with occasionally asking the waiter to just pour it, and dispense with the formalities, if it's an informal occasion; or a simple, young wine; or I'm feeling like rolling the dice! That's just me.

Like I said, I don't disagree with you, but never is a strong term......

Sante!