The most frequently asked question in my corner of the wine world, the corner that deals with the business-end of the glass, is: "What should I drink with dinner tonight?"  

I have a friend who made a fortune developing business software, which he invested in an enormous wine collection of nearly 8000 bottles.  He applied his programming skills to help determine which bottle of wine he should open on any given night.  Into this equation he entered several weighted factors, including: Are you dining alone or with guests?  What’s for dinner?  Do you feel like trying something new?  What night of the week is it?  Do you prefer an older or a younger wine?  Red or white?  And so on.  When he was done he hit “Enter” and you could practically see the tape reels spinning, the lights on the computer bank lighting up, various electronic sounds pinging as the program spit out a list of wines that met the criteria, sometimes an entire page full of suggestions from which to choose the “just right” bottle.  Still, it came down to this:  What do you feel like?  

More to follow