First, no one should drink more than one wine at dinner, for two reasons: First, sooner or later, if we guzzle quantities of the various wines as a daily or even frequent custom, the health of the offender will suffer in the end. The cocktail before dinner is an abomination. "Natural hunger is the best sauce." If you have not natural hunger, do as the lower animal does, do not eat. If champagne is to be the wine, you will enjoy it with the meats and it is sufficient. The old custom of a wine for each course, ending with a cordial and a demi-tasse, is a fool-killer. If the host wishes you to sample a stock Madeira or a sherry, you may safely do so by taking a thimbleful towards the close of the feast, and the same may be said of a cordial or a cognac.

I am glad to say society is becoming more rational as to wine at meals. At many dinners now, at most, a claret or a Burgundy is served, or champagne, and it very dry, alone. With the American or English breakfast any wine is out of place. Think of a Burgundy with coffee and milk and buckwheat cakes and sausages. The thought is nauseating, not appetizing. The Frenchman with his dejeuner a la fourchette wants his Bordeaux. This is more in accord with things, for the dejeuner a la fourchette is almost a mid-day dinner served in course.

If you wish a wine for each course you would take them as follows and be En regle. With the Hors D'oeuvres, or Kickshaws, you would serve a white Burgundy, say Chablis, or a Sauterne. With the soup you would offer sherry or a Marsala. With fish, Hock or Sauterne would be proper. Claret or Burgundy go well with entrees. With the roast serve champagne by all means. When the dessert comes, port, claret, or Madeira, and after these cordials and cognac.

An important matter in serving wine is the temperature at which it is at its best. About the proper temperatures as the wine is being poured are as follows: Sherry and Marsala, 400 F.; Sauterne, the Rhine wines, and the Moselles, 500 F.; claret, 65° F., - about the temperature of the room in which it is served. Burgundy may be as high as 700 F. The White Burgundies, 45° F. As a rule, chill thoroughly all white wines before serving them. Champagne, 30° to 35° F.; port about 6o° F, or anywhere about the temperature of the apartment, and so with Madeira. Probably 550 to 6o° F. is proper to bring out the bouquet in Madeira.

If you wish to serve old wines from bottle, you will usually find a sediment at the bottom. This is the result of age, and you do not want this sediment in your glass, - it will affect the flavor of the wine injuriously. Do not shake the bottle; care for it as a sick baby; do not strain or filter it; pour it gently, and the last glass will be all that the sediment has hurt. Connoisseurs as a rule, such as the late Ward McAllister and Samuel Ward, when possible, recommend that these rare old stock wines be kept in the room in which they are to be drunk, resting quietly for a week, before the dinner.

Some have and use a decanting basket. Do not. The Old Boy gets much fun out of the fuss he makes in decanting his wine by hand. Do not. Give him a good "run for his money."

Now, as to the use of ice. We in America use too much ice in our wines, as a rule. We cannot compare ourselves with the English, who know not the luxury of ice, for our climate differs radically from theirs. The ordinary way of drinking champagne among us is to put broken ice in the glass with the wine. This does not ruin the wine, for it is difficult to ruin good champagne, but it surely blunts its flavor and lessens its sparkle. This method comes of necessity often, for wine is ordered on the spur of the moment and no time is to spare for cooling. If one has his butler, this can be easily arranged, or even at some of our best restaurants cooled wine is kept ready. The other fellow has to put ice in the wine. Then, with champagne, as a rule, always lower the temperature in the bottle and not in the glass. If you wish frappe, it takes some time. A good method is to lay the bottle in a basin, break up the ice, and put it on the bottle, and cover the whole with a wet flannel, and set in a draft of air. This method will take one hour. The Rhine wines and Sauternes we cool, to bring out their bouquet and freshen their flavor. To prepare claret and Burgundy for dinner we set the bottle in hot water or before the fire until warm, say 70° F. Thus treated the wine has more body and less astringency. Port, sherry, Madeira, and Marsala are fortified wines and give up their many good points only when drunk not very cold. If chilled, they lose in both body and flavor. Cold port is "pudding without sauce," and the same may be said of sherry and Madeira.