Dear Urban Diplomat: Can I ask the host of a party to open the wine I brought?
Dear Urban Diplomat,
I brought back an excellent champagne from Paris and was waiting for a special occasion to open it. I decided to bring it, chilled, to a friend’s holiday party. She squealed with delight and said, “Ooh, I’m going to save this for New Year’s,” then tucked it away in the liquor cabinet and served cheap prosecco for the rest of the evening. I silently debated asking her to open the bottle all night but never mustered the nerve. What should I have done?
—Champagne Wishes, Thornhill
Let’s get pedantic about champagne etiquette. You presented the bottle chilled, a cue she should’ve recognized. Instead, she treated the bottle as a hostess gift, a gaffe considering you didn’t hand it over in one of those reindeer-festooned LCBO bags. Now let’s get real. She probably had a dizzying mental checklist of party duties, and sensitively handling your sentimentally charged bubbly didn’t rate. You should have spoken up with something simple like, “I thought we’d toast the holidays with this bottle I bought in…[commence impressive travel story].” Try it next time. If she bristles, take it as your cue to show up in the future with a case of Fuzion.
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