Is there a proper order to consuming different varietals at one sitting?

In other words...let's say that I am having a dinner party with different courses. The wines being served are a champagne, a Soave Classico (apertif), a chardonnay, a pinot noir, a cabernet and a sauternes. Is there some wine etiquette that says you must start with the champagne, followed by the whites, followed by the reds, and ending with the dessert wine?

I understand that it's best to match varietal with the particular food you are serving, but what of a "proper" order? Thanks!

My understanding is do it how you like...but for tasting purposes and not destroying your palate for the evening, go from lightest to heaviest, whites first. Start with the champagne, next the chadonnay, then the pinot, then the cab, and end it with the Sauternes. Would it make any sense to serve the sauternes first?

Bella,

Intuitively, it's always made sense, food wise. I've never started a meal with a tokay or sauternes. Champagne on the other hand...I've started with it, had it between, and finished with it.

I was just wondering if there was some obscure French edict that was severely adherent to the order.

In general you proceed from lighter to heavier wines, dryer to sweeter. The only common exception we make to this is Sauternes with a foir gras appetizer, but we laways serve a palate cleanser after that dish.

If you want to see why, try tasting a Pinot Noir after a Sauternes. The heaviness and sweetness of the Sauternes, just that minimal amount in the motuh after even a sip or two of water, will mask the expansiveness and subtle nuances of the Pinot Noir.

We were at an offline in NYC years ago. Twelve of us had 13 bottles of wine on the table. I loved a 2000 Albert Mann Grand Cru Furstentum Vieilles Vigne Gewurtztraminer and kept my glass of it and sipped it during the meal. When I tasted the '99 Martinelli Reserve PN, one of my all-time favorite CA PNs, after a sip of the Alsatian, I missed all the charm of the PN.

Dagnabbit. I hate when it's all been said already. Nobody has mentioned finishing it all off with a bucket of Cognac though.

i don't follow etiquettes just because some one made it ,

it depens on if i/we like to open a special bottle especialy if it is a sweet wine and vintage port.
our thougt is "why dink it at last only because it's a roule or because it's the most massive wine from the evening, we rather open and at lesat enjoy half of it wile the sences and brain are fully intact!

so sometimes we start with the port, than a riesling than a bubbly (rarely we drink bubbly's) than reds than sweet than maybe the rest of the port.

the most important thing is to make shure to clean up youre tong, by drinking whater or eat somthing or just let pass a litle time.

killerb,

i don't like destillats , do you like to finish with cognac?

i'm right now selling on e-bay my whiskys
they are up on auction until next sunday.

It has all already been said. I'd just add to KillerB's comment that 100yr GM is also a nice touch at the end of a memorable meal.

a

tsunami - not a big fan of spirits myself but a nice Cognac at the end of a meal frequently goes down well. I never stick to rules - they are there as a challenge, not a guideline.

The wine should be paired with the food...or the food with the wine. But generally, as everyone has already said, move from light to heavy. Food should move pretty much in the same manner. Start fairly light and move to heavy and then end sweet.