Do Guests Deserve Good Wine?

Depends on the guests. If its my parents, I use less expensive stuff, since my mother will probably cut hers w/ sprite or 7UP (ack!!). But if its someone who appreciates the good stuff...then I'll pull out the better / best bottles.

When its just Dina and I, we drink a lot more simply. Both of us love sangiovese. Lots of good QPR with that varietal.

Richard

We serve good wine to guests just because we enjoy drinking and sharing it with others. We usually reserve the better wine for smaller groups who have some ability to appreciate it. There have been occasions when guests have not cared for what in my opinion was a stellar Burgundy, Bordeaux, Chianti, etc. I find that good white wines are almost a "can't miss" with the guests we serve them to. I've never had anyone complain about a good white Burg, or Riesling. I have guests who did not care for high end dry Champagnes ("Where's the Prosecco?"), but I guess that comes with the territory.

From what i've experienced even people who have no wine knowledge know when they are drinking a good wine. It's the balance that does it - that magical sensation that's hard to deny. I have friends who don't nerd up on wine and wouldn't dream of spending more than 20(nz)dollars but when handed a glass of something special(in my opinion), will appreciate and enjoy it just as much as my wine geek friends - without the scrutiny or the frown - if it really is any good.
I organise a monthly wine club for myself and my wine geek friends so that we can bang on about the stuff without fear of giggles as much as we like. The rest of the time I try to just enjoy it as much as I can with whoever is keen to share it with me.

From what i've experienced even people who have no wine knowledge know when they are drinking a good wine. It's the balance that does it - that magical sensation that's hard to deny..

It helps if you tell them that the wine is good. I've also experienced situations where people expect everything I bring to be good wine, since it is usually better than whatever they drink on their own, so they think even the bad bottles that I bring are great. Power of suggestion and all..

Tough question, and I admit one that I have struggled with. We enjoy having people over for dinner, and invariably, someone brings a bottle of home made wine (never had one that I liked) or some cheap "animal" wine. More often than not, they will drink the wine we open, not their own, which is fine. I will always open something that matches the food we are serving, but will not generally open up the 'good' stuff unless the guests will truely appreciate it. As someone above noted, we tend to also match the wine to the guests, as well as to the food.