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THE EXOTIC DRINKING BOOK
envious, heads raise at neighbouring tables at this wide display of
lavishness, lower again. The wine is hastily poured out-and there
we are gentlemen-we are drinking wine, and God help
us!
EXPLODED OLD ALEWIVES' TALE No. III, IMPROPRIETY
of HEATING CLARETS
No matter what nice old Aunt Peola Fittich remembers about claret
in London's famous old inn
The Clieshire Cheese,
never heat claret
artificially. Place it in the room where it is to be served, in the forenoon,
properly decanted, with the stopper out. Pour at night without further
treatment.
A WORD on the CORRECT SERVICE of WINES with MEALS,
GIVING FouR EXA.1'1PLEs, or so, of Wrm SEQUENCES
&
SIMILAR
AD–
DENDA
THis CHAPTER on wines makes no pretense to go into types, qualities,
traditional vintages, and the like. This information, often the life
work of gentlemen far mor:c; qualified than ourself to speak of such
matters, is readily available from hundreds of sources-one of the
most charming being a small pocket-size volume by a gentleman and
a gourmet in his own right, Julian Street, entitled
Where Paris Dines;
and no amateur should be without it on his shelves.
But many of these books by experts
fail
to remember that the aver–
age American amateur, not conceived in a wine-drinking land, may
need a helping hand to guide him over the first barriers. Not being
primarily able to concern ourself with extravagant vintages, Ameri–
cans generally prefer peace and mixed drinks rather than wars and
rumours of wars, and infinite wine knowledge. What we note below
are just about all the needful service essentials.
Let us explain
:z
points which have always struck us as not usually
made clear to the amateur.
In
the first place Game can be a relatively
unimportant course, technically an Entree, or it may be the whole
focal point of a meal-like a vast platter of wild duck, or wild turkey,
and there may be no conventional Roast course included in such a
meal. The other is: where we live in the tropics and dining room tern-
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