Was invited to dinner and when I asked what kind of wine I should bring I was told a white wine dry but mild Im a newbie at the wine world any suggestions is greatly appreciated

Welcome Jacara!

The more important thing to ask is what they're serving. That way we can find you a wine that matches the food!

Lisa,
Could I add a extra question on this please, you go to the time & trouble of finding a wine, maybe pay a wee bit more than normal, take it to the host house for dinner & they then put it on the side & pull out some really cheap plonk, saying they will open yours another day ? How does one handle this situation?

Neil

Neil -

This is a very common etiquette question. There are two answers to this.

If they ASKED you to bring a wine to go with dinner - and they told you what the food would be - then they should serve the wine you brought. Unless you did a really awful job of pairing the wine somehow, you did what they asked you to do.

If they did NOT ask you to bring a wine with dinner, then what you are bringing is a hostess gift. That gift is completely theirs to do with what they will. They created the menu, they set up the dinner, and they intended to serve it with a given wine. They shouldn't be forced to change their menu and plans because you randomly chose to bring a wine as their gift.

So if you brought it just as a hostess gift, then they are doing exactly what they should be doing - continuing with their menu as planned. If you don't like the wine they serve, it might be time to have them over to your house instead

What a great reply, thanks a lot, will keep this, maybe in future will stick to just taking a bunch of flowers, but knowing my luck, host suffers will with hay fever.

Neil

Neil - keep in mind that there is definitely an up side to them keeping the wine. Let's say you hate the wines they normally serve, but you like to alternate dinners to keep things fair. So every time you go over you bring something SLIGHTLY more expensive than their standard fare, and really tasty. So even if they don't serve it to you, they drink it, and they really like it. If you make sure it's within their price range, they might step up to drinking that instead - and now you get served the better wine when you visit

Lisa,
New Years Eve just gone, we tried something different, one couple supplied first course, the host supplied main & as singles one brought a sweet desert & another brought cheese dish. Our task to take wine for each course, with a set budget, think it went well, the last course did prove difficult, we managed it.

Neil

That sounds like a great solution! What types of wines did you bring, do you remember?

Here goes. : - First course was a choice of Melon or light onion soup.

We decided to try New Zealand Sauvignon Blanc, went with the Melon, the zappy sting taste of the wine worked, the soup was worried, if the onion would over power the wine, being light onion, wine was not bad.

Next easy, what does any true Brit have, the good old Roast Beef, with all the trimmings.
For this we thought hard, could go for heavy red from France, but remember we had to keep to a budget, end up picking Cabernet Sauvignon from Chile, not to heavy & just right for Roast Beef.

Last course a choice of Profita Rolls with Hot Chocolate or Cheese Board, one wine to cover both also knowing some people would go for both, what to pick. In the end we went Karop Wine from Moldova, this was really trying something new, it was a big hit, a red semi sweet wine, I was surprised, as I did give both courses a go, and wine went with both.

Any questions or comments, most welcome.

Neil

As a footnote, Karop bottle label, is made in shape of a church stained glass window, after reading up on the wine, found the Russian Church required a communal red wine, they brought in some Bordeaux Wines, found them too heavy, so added honey to the bottle, and this resulted in this Semi Sweet Wine.

Melon is a difficult match and I wouldn't have thought of SB.

Best match I've encountered was a southern French Gros Manseng. Made a sublime match