August 10: How Do You Serve a Wine Bottle?

Thursday, August 10, 2006

The air was thick with smoke this morning. I thought the fire might be in the west because the smoke was so thick there. Really, it is 5-6 miles east of here.

At supper, I had to bring a bottle of wine to a table of English guests. I’ve never had to bring out the bottle before, so I wasn’t sure what to do with the cork. We had opened the bottle in the kitchen. 

I put the bottle on the table. They said “thank you” and started talking. I stood there holding the cork for a few seconds thinking, “Do I set it on the table? Hand it to them? Put it in the bottle?”

In the end, I asked, “Do you want the cork?”

They took it and that was that.

It probably wasn’t the most polite phraseology, but it had to come to the point where I had to do something or leave.