How do you plan your wine selection

OK, so you are having steak for dinner (or fish, or pasta...). How far ahead do you plan what wine you are going to drink with your meal?

One of the joys of having a cellar -- choosing food and getting ingredients takes more than enough time to decide on the wine.

A mix. I try to plan to have 8-12 bottles standing upright "ready to roll" which give us a decent range for choosing from. However for whites and younger reds, there's no issue with sediment, so these can be called on with ease.

On a typical night, the decision is made just before the food goes on - enough time to give a slight chill to a white or to allow a red to ease up in temperature. Often we'll only do half a bottle, with the remainder going into a handy half bottle. Thus the decision of what to drink was made the evening before!

However some bottles are a major part of the evening and these might be selected a week or so in advance.

One of the reasons we cellar wines, is the opportunity to go "what do you fancy?" and have a good range of options on hand to take the mood.

regards

Ian

It varies greatly. Sometimes I know there is a bottle I need to get to, and will plan a meal around it. More often than not the food drives the wine. Since we live in the woods, we plan meals for up to a week in advance. At the same time we plan meals, we plan wines to go with them, which is why I voted for one to two days in advance. That is about the average.

[Robin Garr]

OK, so you are having steak for dinner (or fish, or pasta...). How far ahead do you plan what wine you are going to drink with your meal?

Neil, my default answer is "an hour or so before dinner," as I'll very often plan a meal, then wander over to decide what I've got that would go well with it.

But I'm not totally consistent about that, and sometimes will plan a meal around a specific wine, rather than the usual picking a wine to match the meal. In that alternative case the decision is made longer in advance.

[James Roscoe]

I am all over the map here. It depends on what the situation is. My wife is the cook in the family and prepares all the meals. If I know in advance I will pull something either a day or more in advance, but usually it's in the hour to "it's time for dinner" range.

[Jenise]

My option, which would have been "fairly early in the day" wasn't listed, so I selected "an hour or so ahead". As both the cook AND wine geek in my family, I start mentally choosing the wine about the same time I start planning what I'm making for dinner and all that is usually decided by lunch if not breakfast. Perhaps your question assumes that the cook and the wine chooser are two different persons? Or that the chooser has a day job and isn't free to think about wine until an hour before dinner?

[James Roscoe]

My option wasn't listed, so I selected "an hour or so ahead". As both the cook AND wine geek in my family, I start mentally choosing the wine about the same time I start planning what I'm going to cook and all that is usually done by lunch. Perhaps your question assumes that the cook and the wine chooser are two different entities?

Jenise raises and interesting issue with these polls. What are the assumptiuons? I like the idea here, and with the poll on the FLDG, but I would find it easier to answer if there were a set of assumptions posted. I know we want to leave these polls value free, but every poll needs some context. Of course maybe I'm just not listening. I've been accused of that before. In any event, I think Jenise raises an issue that is worth some discussion. I hadn't thought about the dichotomy inherent in this poll before.

Me: "What are we having?"

Wife: "Sicilian Lifeguard Pasta, and it will be on the table in five minutes."

Me: "Oh, jeez, I think there's some grillo down there; I don't know if it's cold...lemme go look."

My option wasn't listed, so I selected "an hour or so ahead". As both the cook AND wine geek in my family, I start mentally choosing the wine about the same time I start planning what I'm going to cook and all that is usually done by lunch. Perhaps your question assumes that the cook and the wine chooser are two different entities?

Jenise raises and interesting issue with these polls. What are the assumptiuons? I like the idea here, and with the poll on the FLDG, but I would find it easier to answer if there were a set of assumptions posted. I know we want to leave these polls value free, but every poll needs some context. Of course maybe I'm just not listening. I've been accused of that before. In any event, I think Jenise raises an issue that is worth some discussion. I hadn't thought about the dichotomy inherent in this poll before.

I didn't really make any assumptions. Except maybe we are talking about a weekend meal when the work day for either or both partners (or even if you are single) doesn't need to come into the equation. And "an hour or so" would just as well cover early in the day Jenise, so you are OK. I voted an hour or so, but as with everyone, we also sometimes choose the wine a long time in advance, and plan the meal around the wine. Other times, I could have picked the "Dinners on the table" option. But perhaps I could have chosen the options a little more carefully.

I buy wine for the future.

In other words, my wine purchases are made weeks in advance of what I plan to serve.

[James Roscoe]

Neil, your answer doesn't surprise me. I appreciate your taking the time to give my musings a thoughtful reply. My thoughts are not unique to this poll by the way. It was just that Jenise's post made me think about my built in assumptions when answering a poll and then I went from there. Poll psychology is a fascinating subject and one we probably ought to pay more attention to as the media beats us over the head with polls and our democracies are very poll driven.

[Jenise]

Other times, I could have picked the "Dinners on the table" option. But perhaps I could have chosen the options a little more carefully.

Neil, I often build my meals around the wines I want to drink, too. I'm fortunate in that my cooking skills are as diverse as my wine collection, so most desires can be met easily. But about the poll questions, it's impossible to name all the possibilities that everyone will need, it just seemed to me that there was a big gap between an hour or so and the day before, and I wondered why. Especially since I know who you're married to.