As devoted BBallers know, we’re into helping our readers out. Some may call this service journalism; I’m not even sure what we do even deserves to be called that. Let’s just call them pointers.

In any case, we’ve written about where to start for planning business dinners for large groups here, but we didn’t begin to scratch the surface on what to do once you get there.
Plenty of you must have found yourself in the situation where you’re staring at a wine menu with literally no idea what to order. If so, then you’re like me. Forbes has a pointer-filled article on how to order wine for business dinners.

While some of their tips are pretty basic, (i.e. ask the sommelier for tips), others are not so obvious. One more appropriate for the business dinner and less so for personal stuff is to ask for the wine menu in advance. Typically this is not posted on their website, and Forbes doesn’t give any recommendations on what to do if the restaurant’s wine menu is enormous, which it typically is at nice places. I suppose you could always stop in beforehand and check it out, which doesn’t really help if you don’t know anything about wines, but it does give you the opportunity to consult with others that do.

Other Forbes tips follow the moderation rule: don’t necessarily go for the most expensive choice (incidentally, I remember reading somewhere that the most popular wine choices are typically the second cheapest one on the menu); don’t start off with a strong/”big” wine; and order to please all palates, so nothing quirky. Also order quickly — it inspires confidence.

Related articles:
Etiquette Time: Cheese, now updated with pictures.
Etiquette Time: Vino (on drinking)

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