In my experience the French, outside the great temples of gastronomy, tend to attach less ceremony to the service of wine than, say, Americans, Britons or Germans do.
You'll find a tasting bar, but then there's the front porch, where you can sit and enjoy table service of wine flights, a relatively new experience in the Willamette Valley.
Don't assume that your best pairing is something fairly bland like popcorn, or that pairing has to be deadly serious and only in service of expensive wine and expensive foods.
The lively, pure 2002, an old-fashioned wine with no evidence of new oak, is Calabretta's most recent release, making it one of very few producers of still wines in the world that offers the costly service of aging wines for years before releasing them.
This is a kind of performance art, meant to reconnect people to the land, and with good service and plenty of wine it's probably a nice evening.
Every aspect of wine service was a complete mystery to the willing but untrained staff.
In the United States, where most restaurants have tried to relax the formality of wine service, one rarely sees a tastevin.
Sethi, along with champagne expert Sandia Chang, her co-host for the night, is one of a new generation who are not just chipping away at the image of the starched and slightly snooty sommelier, but creating a style of wine service that is entirely modern, engaging and adventurous.
"Asking for advice is no longer seen as a sign of weakness, and part of that is to do with the evolution in the quality of wine service in restaurants, especially top restaurants," says David Lynch, general manager and former wine director of renowned New York restaurant Babbo, which has an 1,100-bottle 1,100-bottle
But not every restaurant has caught up with the basics of wine service.
It's a wonderfully absorbing homework exercise in service of finding the wines that you truly love.
