Featured Image Credit: Instagram/@dan_the_butler
Topics: News, Food And Drink, UK News
Kit Roberts
A professional butler has spilled some secrets on dinner party etiquette, including some advice on when to open wine that has been gifted by a guest.
Now, you would think that a party would be a time to relax, unwind and let off a bit of steam with your nearest and dearest. But not so, it seems, if you're rich and/or famous, as there are rules of etiquette that you must follow.
A professional butler (yes, butlers still exist) has shared some of the rules that hosts should adhere to when having people over. Among them is one which might seem odd to anyone who isn't ridiculously wealthy.
Daniel Prattley - also known as Dan the Butler - has worked for the rich and famous the world over, providing high level hospitality service.
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Starting out in the West End as an assistant to Joan Rivers, his work as a butler has taken him to the likes of Monaco, Italy, Ibiza and the French Riviera.
It's safe to say that Daniel knows it all when it comes to dinner parties, so what are the do's and don'ts when it comes to hosting?
It's a fairly common practice to take something nice with you when you go to a party - you know that you're now a bona fide Sophisticated Grown Up Adult Person when that changes from Glenn's Vodka and squash to a nice bottle of wine.
Not the £4.50 cooking wine on the bottom shelf or, heaven forfend, boxed wine, but a nice bottle that you actually picked out and chose. Those are the general rules, right?
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However, Daniel has advised that if someone brings you a bottle of wine as a gift at a party, it is poor etiquette to open it on the same evening.
This is because it implies that you don't have enough booze to keep your guests' glasses filled.
He told Insider: "Never open wine that's bought for you. Make sure you don't just have enough wine, but non-alcoholic spirits for those who are driving, pregnant, or don't want to drink."
Frankly, for us mere mortals, if you're feeding your guests it seems like a fair request to ask them to bring a bottle of something along. You might provide some drinks, but unless it's a very special occasion like a wedding guest's shouldn't expect all the drinks to be provided.
But it seems the rich, as with everything, live by a different set of rules.
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When it comes to tips on wine, a butler like Daniel is certainly the right person to ask. Historically, only two people in a household held keys to the wine cellar. One was the master of the house, the other was the butler.
There are all manner of rules out there when it comes to drinking wine and its related beverages - Don't drink red wine with fish, pass the port from right to left and don't drink Burgundy in a boat. The rules seem endless!
While it is a lovely thing to learn more about the wine you're drinking, at the end of the day the first and last rule should simply be to drink what you enjoy, whether that's Dom Perignon or Blossom Hill.
After all, you're the one who's drinking it.