Wine Etiquettes & Business Lunches
Wine Speak: Whilst ordering one may be foxed as to what to order but Wine is but an offspring of the grape, so if you want to know the wine know the grape.

Try and identify some of the more accepted grape varieties of red and white wines. For Instance for Red Wine –Cabernet Sauvignon; Shiraz & Pinot Noir  For whites- Chenin Blanc,Chardonnay and Sauvignon Blanc should help you whilst placing your order.

Correct Pronunciations of these French names should help you make the right sort of Impression. For tasting purposes and not destroying your palate for the evening, go from lightest to heaviest, whites first. Start with the champagne, next the chardonnay, then the pinot, then the cab, and end it with the Sauternes.In general you proceed from lighter to heavier wines, dryer to sweeter.

The only common exception perhaps one can make to this is Sauternes with a foir gras appetizer, but its important to serve a palate cleanser after that dish. If it is a lunch meeting, one should rather go for light bodied whites or rose wines.

Holding the Glass Right: Holding the Glass Right: Hold the stem of the wine glass securely, together with your thumb, index and middle finger this ensures a steady temperature to your wine glass whilst giving it the necessary stability. This keeps fingerprints off the bowl and keeps the hand from heating the wine & prevents the wine from getting warmer than the temperature at which it is best consumed. Rotate your wrist, holding the stem of the glass and then bring it up to your nose to take a whiff of the wine. Then take a tiny sip of the and if pleasing to all your senses, communicate your approval to the waiter. Wait for him to fill both the glasses till a halfway mark, and then you can wish him cheers. 
 
Wine Tasting Etiquettes

Wine tastings are popular because they override the limitations of sampling wine alone, at home.

 
Do you have to make loud slurping or gurgling noise that you hear “serious” wine tasters make at tastings? Of course, you don’t. But the drawing of air into your mouth does enhance your ability to taste the wine. With a little practice, you can gurgle without making loud, attention-grabbing noises.
 

Courteous wine tasters also do not volunteer their opinion about a wine until other tasters have had a chance to taste the wine. Serious tasters like to form their opinion independently and are sure to throw dirty looks at anyone who interrupts their concentration prematurely.

 

If you swallow every wine you taste, by the time you reach wine number nine or ten you will be far less thoughtful to make a judgment about the wine. So spitting is acceptable. In wineries, professional tasters sometime spit right onto the floor or into the drains. In more elegant surroundings, you spit into a spittoon, usually a simple container like a large bowl (one per taster) or an ice bucket that two or three tasters share.Well, you can drink all of your wine at a wine-tasting if you are confident that it may not blurr your senses.

 

Perfume and Cologne: Any kind of scent should be avoided especially perfumes, colognes, after-shaves or scented hair spray or gel. 

 
Lighting Up: Smoking at or just before a wine tasting affects the taste and smell of the wine as a result of the strong odor.
 

Mints and Gum:Chewing gum and breath mints alter the taste of wine.One should rinse one’s mouth with water before a wine tasting.
 

Wine Bottle Reading:
  1. Wine maker or winery: The company or firm that made the wine or, in some cases, the wine's trademark name.
  2.
Appellation: The country or region where the grapes for this wine were grown.
  3. Vintage:This is the year in which the grapes were harvested, not the year in which the wine was bottled, which for some wines may be years later.
  4.
Variety: The specific kind of grapes from which the wine was made. Not all wines disclose varietal content. Most French and Italian wines do not do so.
  5.

Ripeness:In a tradition known primarily in Germany and, in somewhat different form, Austria, some wines use special terminology to reflect the ripeness of the grapes and the quality of the finished wine.

  6.
Estate bottling and winery information: Estate bottling and winery information: If the wine is "estate bottled" (made from grapes grown and harvested in the winery's own vineyards), this will be disclosed with language on the label such as the French "Mise en bouteille(s) au Chateau".
  7.

Optional information: Additional information that may range from wine-maker's notes or detailed analytical and tasting information to advertising hype are often featured on labels, especially the back label.
 

Wine Etiquettes at Formal Dinners:
 

 

 For the Host:
    Serving Order: At a dinner party women and older guests should be served first, then men, and than the host.
   
Water: For the guests who get thirsty have bottled water on hand; also good for those who want to rinse their mouths between wines. Pitchers of water for rinsing glasses between tastings is recommended... and remember to have something into which your guest can discard their rinse water.
    Food and Wine: Unsalted water crackers or unflavored French bread should be provided for palate cleansing during the tasting. In case you wish to provide something substantial, the rules of etiquette for wine drinking say that nothing stronger than a lightly salted mozzarella is appropriate.
   

Serve wine at the right temperature as recommended on the label for e.g. an Aryaa Shiraz should be served at 18- 20 deg C whilst Aryaa  Chenin Blanc should be served at 12-15 degree C. 

   
Give your Reds a little time to breathe. Uncork your bottle of  Aryaa  Cabernet Sauvignon or  Aryaa Shiraz a half-hour before drinking; pour the wine into a decanter (a clean water pitcher will do) and swirl it around to allow it to open up a bit.
   

Ideally the Wine glass should be clear and broader at the bottom and tapering up to a narrower rim. White wine glasses tend to be smaller than those for red wine. Champagne and sparkling wine are best served in tall, narrow flutes which keep the bubbles from escaping, ensuring the wine doesn't go flat quickly.

   

Above all it is your Wine and you decide how to drink it so there is no need to be bogged down by  stodgy rules.