New Years Eve - when do you open the good stuff?

[David M. Bueker]

So it’s almost time for everyone to stay up until midnight for no real reason.

Champagne/sparkling wine is the traditional celebratory beverage, but drinking top Champagne at midnight can be a bit of a waste. I tend to open the “good stuff” with dinner, then open a good but less exalted wine for the midnight toast (if I am still awake).

What’s your plan for the turning of the new year?

Not quite sure, Mrs P is trying on some new outfits right now so hard to concentrate on what is happening here .

[Robin Garr]

What you do is what we do, although there's another alternative for us older folks: Declare midnight on London time, toast at 0000 GMT/UCT, and go to bed.

Probably fast asleep! Why stay up?

Greetings from Sweden / Fredrik L

[David M. Bueker]

Why stay up?

Well for me there is often some good football game on until about 11 or 11:30, so it's only an extra 30-60 minutes.

Not this year though, so zzzzzzzzzzz is highly likely.

We are never going to see 65 again. We are usually asleep by midnight. We do however have a bottle of good champagne earlier in the evening. This year it will be a 2006 Taittinger Comtes de Champagne.

I usually open good wine (generally still) with dinner, and then NV Champagne at midnight - no need for tete de cuvee. . But no compulsion to stay up till midnight if we are not at a party- we're having friends for dinner Sun, and haven't decided yet whether to aim for midnight, or celebrate on Rio time

We will be at near-by friends for dinner and to play euchre so a red or white , depending on the menue, and then a nice NV Champagne, maybe Vilmart, at mid-night. Only the hostess and I are real wine lovers so a bit goes a long way.

Not quite sure, Mrs P is trying on some new outfits right now so hard to concentrate on what is happening here .

Like the low cut one right now!

We will have a 2006 Millésime from Paul Bara for dinner and Sekt-Piccolo for midnight.

Cheers Winfried

My staying up until midnight days are generally over but if we do make it, I will open something cheap.

I have a sound gig that will wrap up around 7, so we will have some friends and neighbors over to eat some snacks and I plan to open a bottle of Pierre Peters around that time.

Jason

[Jenise]

I'm having a six-course dinner party that starts at 8:30. Six of my guests will come from another party where I've severely warned them to "pace themselves". The one couple who ISN'T coming from that party (we were both invited, but we're more sensible) is the couple who are allergic, she believes, to champagne. The spendy stuff Bob and I might open early for ourselves, then, we'll probably reserve till tomorrow unless someone brings something in a similar category. I'll be ready at all levels just in case, but definitely agree with your plan.

It's a dilemma, isn't it? Pop your best bottle at midnight, and either people are too tired to enjoy it, or the quality is wasted. I tend to serve dinner that will go with sparkling wine, and serve my best bottle then. This year it was 2014 Argyle from the Willamette Valley in Oregon. That's still a very fancy bottle of "champagne" in non-geek circles. Then I served a NV Bottex Vin de Bugey du Cerdon at midnight, which also has the advantage of being lower alcohol.

If you have enough guests that you can open a bottle just for toasting at midnight and can afford high-end Champagne, great, but we don't tend to do it that way.

[Jenise]

One guest brought a $100 champagne. I suggested we open that first and enjoy it while our palates were fresh. From there, we went to the dinner table and around midnight we opened some Pommery and Taittinger from my cellar. In the meantime, the one couple who arrived early, the one with the allergy, were served a $130 bottle of WA cab, and they brought a high-end WA syrah to share that they wouldn't have opened for the other guests. We opened and had glasses of both, then the bottles were corked and set aside when the other guests arrived. The other guests included very good friends and their guests visiting from Seattle. "They drink like fish", I was warned, and neither of them are discerning drinkers. In fact, a broken nose decades ago means the male half of that couple can't even smell what he's drinking.

In the morning we discovered that both bottles of expensive reds had been drained by the Seattle couple to whom they might as well have been cheap plonk.

SIGH. It never occurred to me I had to hide them. Putting the corks on and setting them away from the wine service area should have been enough.

Btw, I know I mentioned this in another thread, but I'm still pissed off so I told the story again.

I treat myself to NV Krug on New Years Eve, and traditionally I've opened it at midnight. But this year I had it earlier in the evening, along with pate.

-Paul W.

In the morning we discovered that both bottles of expensive reds had been drained by the Seattle couple to whom they might as well have been cheap plonk.

SIGH. It never occurred to me I had to hide them. Putting the corks on and setting them away from the wine service area should have been enough.

Grrrr.