Wine Etiquette: Tasting, Ordering & Serving

Stephanie Pierson and Barbara Harrison's article in The Atlantic gives pieces of advice on how to behave and react when the unexpected happens.

One of the situations goes like this:

You open a very pricey bottle of vintage Calvados as an after-dinner treat for you and your guests. One of your guests sniffs what you've just poured into her glass. "What do you think?" you ask. She swirls it around and says, "It smells like a dead animal."

What would you say?

Colman Andrews, a founding editor of Saveur and Gourmet's last restaurant columnist suggests as follows:

"'Wow...That's very interesting. You know, that stuff has fatty acids in it. Most people can't smell them. You must be very sensitive. Here, just pour it into my glass, and let me get you a Tía María...'"


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