Q. A dinner guest, a charming, intelligent and cultured guest,
who knows that my wife is a gourmet cook and that we appreciate good wines, a guest who has lived much of his life in France, indeed who still does, has astonished us this week by bringing to our party two bottles of Budgens specially selected Lambrusco 4 per cent. I took the only pleasure available from this ghastly gift by unscrewing the caps and tipping the contents down the sink this morning. I was so completely astonished at the time that I was utterly lost for words, so he must be still oblivious to his faux pas. Do you have any advice concerning how we should have reacted, or indeed how we still might? We do still love him, of course.
Name and address withheld A. These days one cannot rule out hidden miniature camcorders set up to capture reactions for a personal comedy archive. Whether or not this was the case, it was childish and wasteful of you to discard the ‘wine’. Teenagers adore Lambrusco and it would have been very gratefully received at any village fête for the tombola.
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