Hello, I am Nancy Mitchell with the Etiquette Advocate and we are talking about dining etiquette.
We are going to talk now about glassware, the placement and the use of the glasses that you will find at your place setting. Glasses are at the right of your place setting and they are arranged in the order that you will be using them. White wine is the glass that is closest to your plate. It's assumed that, that’s the beverage that you will be having with an appetizer or your first course. Red wine is the glass directly behind that and it's a larger bowl as you see. A water glass is an even large goblet that’s going to be behind those two glasses and there may or may not be a champagne flute which is at the back of the arrangement and champagne is normally served with the dessert. When you have stemware, it's a good idea to pick the glass up by the stem. That goes for a white wine or a red wine, wine experts will tell you that picking up a red wine by the bowl of the glass, is going to change the temperature of the wine and therefore the flavor. So, it's a good rule of thumb to grasp the wine glass by the stem in each case. That may not be possible with a water goblet because it's a very heavy glass, it's a bigger bowl, it can be top-heavy. The grip you will want is to grasp the bottom of the bowl the top of the stem, with enough fingers to make is secure. It can be very large, it can be very heavy. Some things you are not going to do with your glassware, if I did not want a beverage, I am not going to turn my glass over to indicate, I don’t want this course, or this white wine. When the waiter comes around, I will pass my hand over the top of the glass and I will say, No, thank you. I don’t care for that wine.
Other things you are not going to go, if you want to call attention, to a toast or you are trying to get the attention of the other diners, you are not going to use the utensil to clink the side of your glass. That’s not what they are there for.
The next thing, were going to talk about is bread and condiments and how to pass them and where to place them.