Before the cloth is removed you do not drink wine unless with another.  If you are asked to take wine it is uncivil to refuse.  When you drink with another, you catch the person’s eye and bow with politeness.  It is not necessary to say anything, but smile with an air of great kindness.

Some one who sits near the lady of the house, should, immediately upon the removal of the soup, request the honor of drinking wine with her, which movement is the signal for all the others.  If this is not done, the master of the house should select some lady. He never asks gentlemen, but they ask him; this is a refined custom, attended to in the best company.

If you have drunk with every one at the table, and wish more wine, you must wait till the cloth is removed.  The decanter is then sent round from the head of the table, each person fills his glass, and all the company drinks the Health of all the company.  It is enough if you bow to the master and mistress of the house, and to your opposite neighbour.  After this the ladies retire.  Some one rises to open the door for them, and they go into the parlour, the gentlemen remaining to drink more wine.

After the ladies have retired, the service of the decanters is done.  The host draws the bottles which have been standing in a wine cooler since the commencement of the dinner.  The bottle goes down the left side and up the right, and the same bottle never passes twice.  If you do not drink, always pass the bottle to your neighbour.

At dinner never call for ale or porter; it is coarse, and injures the taste for wine.

It was formerly the custom to drink porter with cheese.  One of the few real improvements introduced by the “Napoleon of the realms of fashion” was to banish this tavern liquor and substitute port. The dictum of Brummell was thus enunciated:  “A gentleman never malts, he ports.”

A gentleman should always express his preference for some one sort of wine over others; because, as there is always a natural preference for one kind, if you say that you are indifferent, you show that you are not accustomed to drink wines.  Your preference should not of course be guided by your real disposition; if you are afflicted by nature with a partiality for port, you should never think of indulging it except in your closet with your chamber-door locked.  The only index of choice is fashion;—­either permanent fashion (if the phrase may be used), or some temporary fashion created by the custom of any individual who happens to rule for a season in society.  Port was drunk by our ancestors, but George the Fourth, upon his accession to the regency, announced his royal preference for sherry.  It has since been fashionable to like sherry.  This is what we call a permanent fashion.

Champagne wine is drunk after the removal of the first cloth; that is to say, between the meats and the dessert.  One servant goes round and places before each guest a proper-shaped glass; another follows and fills them, and they are immediately drunk.  Sometimes this is done twice in succession.  The bottle does not again make its appearance, and it would excite a stare to ask at a later period for a glass of champagne wine.