If you invite someone over to your house, say for dinner or to stay the weekend, and they bring a bottle of booze as a gift, what is the etiquette around opening said bottle and consuming it? Do you open it there and then or do you keep it and drink it at some other time?
What is the polite thing to do in the UK?
8 comments
Open it of course
Generally open and drink it.
A main exception would be if you’d lined up wines to match the food, or got sufficient to keep the same wine thought the meal.
Open and serve at nearest convenience. Like if you’ve already got a bottle open for dinner then it might not make sense to open theirs until later in the evening.
I think formal etiquette would be that the host offers alcohol that they have provided themselves in the first round of drinks, and then the bottle that the person brought in the next round.
This is not a strict rule though, and it depends a little on the drink and the occasion. If it’s a spirit you’d usually offer that before or after a meal for example, but not with.
Just putting it away and never offering it in the night may be a little weird, but ultimately this is not a point on which most people have fixed expectations.
If it is white wine then get it chilled. You don’t need to bust drinks open immediately but try and get to it at some point if you can. It may not even fit in with the meal or the evening you have planned. Don’t let people sit there without a drink if they bought a bottle of wine or some beer around whatever you do!
I don’t think anyone would raise an much of an eyebrow either way.
But, in my experience and what I tend to do, is open the gift and share. The timing would depend on what is already open/available and the nature of the booze.
If you have invited someone over for dinner or to stay for the weekend and they bring a bottle (or other consumable) then it is a gift for the host for the effort and expense they have gone to.
There is no expectation that it should be opened at the time or shared.
Especially at a dinner when the host may have selected wine to pair with the meal.
Usually have it at that occasion (although not as the first drink because that suggests I didn’t have anything prepared myself and was relying on them bringing something). If I don’t open it at the time, then I put a post-it note reminding me who it’s from – then you could serve it next time that person is around or send them a thank-you message when you do open it (“just served that wine you gave me to my friends from work and everyone loved it, thank you!” or whatever).