Great thought about sparkling wines.

With wine by the glass I've always tried to consider day of week, time of day, and quantity of wines available in trying to choose something that hasn't been open too long. Seems like a lot to go through to make sure you are getting something fresh, but I will definitely add the sparkling idea to ease my complicated formula.

I'm fortunate in that I have several wine-drinking friends who like being adventurous with wine, so we always get a bottle when we dine together.

When I'm alone, I rarely drink and if I do it'll be by the glass.

By myself - by the glass.

With my wife - by the bottle unless we're positive we're only having one glass each or one of us isn't drinking.

I order by the box, but only if the cardboard is flown in from the Cotes du Rhone region of France.

once when wife and i went to very uppity restaurant in georgetown area, if the wine was not on the list, corkage was $10. if it was on the list, cost was price of wine on the list. we did not have a list. so, i drained one of those boxes with a metalized bladder, and filled it with 2 bottles of decent white burgundy. thought about mixing a bottle of white and a bottle of red for rose to cover all food choices................http://images.ibsrv.net/ibsrv/res/sr...ies/tongue.gif

we carry a proseco(as a distributor). we have a "deal" for anyone that will pour it as a "by the glass". shows up on most lists at a very favorable price. the slow places on slow days burn a couple bottles a day. the "hot" places in dc burn cases of it per day. i assure a bottle is fresh if only open for 2-4 hrs, with a stopper in between times. let alone being open a few minutes.

Depends upon the place - many places that have a wine-knowledgeable clientele, and an interesting list, can typically cycle through bottles within a few days - and when that is the case, the nitrogen preservation systems work. But generally, even using these systems, a bottle will be tired in less than a week after it was opened.

sorry to be so cynical, but in my experience, less than half the "wine knowledgeable" crowd notice corked wine, let alone tired wines.

i do believe that is the reason for all the fancy new labels, and the cutesie names. name and label sell.

i have been offered and buying a lot of heavily discounted quality wines off of retailer shelves that do not move because they are not in fancy and cute packaging.

Me too.

"I want don't want wine with good taste, I want wine that taste good"
"Sorry Charlie"

Post of the day!. Those who talk most loudly about wine are often the least aware of how often they've been conned, scammed, overcharged or simply beflummoxed. These days, the walls and aisle space of wine merchants who cater principally to the restaurant/hotel/wine bar trade are lined with "deeply discounted" cases of decent, drinkable, modest wines with labels and names which lack eye-appeal, while tarted-up bottlings run out the door to be swilled by the "chic" and conspicuous consumers.

Order a glass and expect a new bottle to be opened? You and the next guy and the next guy after that, and pretty soon the joint has raised glass prices to bottle levels or closed, broke. Of course, with many of the currently offered US Merlots (these days "pop" wines, as Zinfandel was back when we were "unsophisticated consumers"), instead of a glass of most house Merlot, I choose to go "Mer-Less")

Proseco? As I recall in the halcyon days of my youth, a young naval officer in the "Med", back when a liter of crown-capped "local" went for 300 lira (and the lira was 640 to the dollar), whilst a variety of sparkling Italian wines of ill repute went for 600 lira, cheap cork-popping, no self respecting Brit or Frenchman would dip a lip into an Italian bubbly. Of course, this was before the Italians discovered that Americans would drink Lambrusco, served only to young children, grandmothers and Japanese tourists in Italy. Fancy bottles, shiny stopper-foil and cute labels do not great wines make, no matter the current trend. Even after our last trip to Spain, I remain comfortable that all sorts of Spanish "Cava" remain much less inflated in price or hyped in quality, than are most of the "Prosecos' showing up in US bars, restaurants and store shelves.

Fortunately, a few years back, my state, long in the Dark Ages when it came to booze and wine, advanced to the 14th century, now allowing us to carry home the bottles with wine left to finish later.

Of course, my favorite restaurant, recently closed after all the media folks who hung out there during the Bush '43 years had returned to their urban hovels, had no alky license at all, so BYOB held. If you brought your own corkscrew, there was no corkage fee (until the owner replaced the squat juice glasses with a selection of quaint dime store stemware, when it went up to $5).

Of course, I'm comfortable subscribing to the maxims promulgated by my old (and almost only) French friend who said:

"God, having created Pinot Noir, rested and cast his seed upon the wind, so that lesser wines might be created for the hoi polloi and lesser folk to swill."

"A single glass of wine is like unto coitus interruptus, never enough and lacking significance".

Well, quite simply, you've described folks who are not genuinely wine-knowledgeable, even if they think that they are. I would agree that far fewer of the folks who claim wine sophistication actually are wine-savvy.

I'll be the first to admit that I have a hard time telling the difference between a $20 bottle and a $100 bottle. This is why I usually get the $20 bottle...or $10, because really, who am I fooling. :)

I can, however, generally tell if the wine is corked.

I've had such poor luck with wines by the glass in the past that I almost never order them anymore. Bottles sitting recorked on the bar counter for who knows how long, though of course the bartender always assures me it was opened today-- but then it tastes like a leftover. Bartenders and managers too often giving me the stink eye when I send the glass back. Then there's the frustration of spending almost as much on a glass as I could buy the whole bottle for at a local market. If my dining companions won't share a fresh bottle with me, I'll order a diet soda at the restaurant and enjoy a drink from my own liquor cabinet when I get home. Much cheaper and more satisfying that way.

Same here. If I spend more than $12-$15 a bottle, it's only because I'm positive the wine is great (from prior consumption, generally on someone else's dime). And I'm not positive that I'd know if a wine was corked.

I like bringing my own bottle, paying the corkage and knowing that I'm going to get a very good wine to enjoy with my meal.

I find some restaraunts are very hit and miss with their selections.