Ethical question

Dear Ms. Manners,
It must be the flu season because my nasal mucous membranes are inflamed, I have the sniffles and my olfactory sense is all but shot. Therefore I am very careful not to open any wines that may be potentially good. I mean, good wines are meant for sharing. If I can't derive any pleasure out of it, it is technically not sharing. Now, my better half thinks otherwise and thinks it is rather selfish of me. Am I wrong in my behaviour? After all, this too will pass.
Sincerely,
Congested and confused.

Dear Ms. Manners,
It must be the flu season because my nasal mucous membranes are inflamed, I have the sniffles and my olfactory sense is all but shot. Therefore I am very careful not to open any wines that may be potentially good. I mean, good wines are meant for sharing. If I can't derive any pleasure out of it, it is technically not sharing. Now, my better half thinks otherwise and thinks it is rather selfish of me. Am I wrong in my behaviour? After all, this too will pass.
Sincerely,
Congested and confused.

Shaji, now is the time to open any and all corked wines you may have in your cellar.

[Jenise]

Shaji, funny post. But a potentially serious one, and here's the way I look at it. When either of us are under the weather, if we're having wine anyway I would typically choose something that I wouldn't miss missing if only because he relies on me heavily to interpret the wines. But if Bob wasn't okay with that, he'd get whatever he wants: I may be the wine steward, but it's his cellar, too.

Dear Congested and Confused,

I agree totally with Jenise on this issue.

The issue is a bit more interesting if you forego wine worth drinking when your partner can't enjoy it.

Nonetheless, the well partner should have the option to choose the wine.

Regards, Bob

When I think my system isn't up to really tasting, but Betsy wants something, I try to find something I think is good, but either (a) is inexpensive enough to easily replace or (b) I've had enough times it's no true disappointment to miss out on entire experience. The key to happiness is keeping plenty of good but inexpensive wines.

I was very tempted to try Bob's (Henrick) suggestion, but my spouse proved too saavy and saw thorugh my ploy of opening corked wines. We agreed on a compromise of Alaska (gin and chartreuse). But Dale makes some good points. It is a good argument for stocking up my cellar. What would I do without you guys?

In these situations I'd open either
- something we've got a few bottles of, so the other person isn't missing out on a one-off opportunity
or
- something that's in the healthy person's preference, but less so the sick person's

As an alternative, open something young, immediately decanting half the bottle into an empty half-bottle & re-cork. Healthy person gets to drink the wine that night. The sick person gets to drink it when they've managed to wreak revenge and passed on the germs to their loved one

I would propose making mulled wine out of some of the lesser wines in your collection and using it to help you sleep and get over your ailment. You could serve this to guests as well and avoid any potentially reputation damaging explanations of olfactory dysfunction.

[Jenise]

In these situations I'd open either
- something we've got a few bottles of, so the other person isn't missing out on a one-off opportunity
or
- something that's in the healthy person's preference, but less so the sick person's

The former goes without saying. The latter: why, didn't even consider that since I don't allow Bob to like anything I don't like.

... .Honey, I really think all these wines need a few more days of aging.

He who pays for it can do with it what he wants.

In these situations I'd open either
- something we've got a few bottles of, so the other person isn't missing out on a one-off opportunity
or
- something that's in the healthy person's preference, but less so the sick person's

As an alternative, open something young, immediately decanting half the bottle into an empty half-bottle & re-cork. Healthy person gets to drink the wine that night. The sick person gets to drink it when they've managed to wreak revenge and passed on the germs to their loved one

I like Ian's suggestion regarding opening things that the healthy person prefers but the sick person doesn't. On a somewhat related note, when my wife was pregnant, she quit drinking wine entirely. I took this as an opportunity to drink some of the stuff I like a lot (zinfandel, petite sirah, some Cal cabs) while letting her favorites (Rhones, some Spanish wines, some Cal cabs) get more cellar time. I also tended to drink mine from coffee cups rather than wine glasses so that I didn't rub it in too much.