This is kind of a thread hijack, but it does topically reflect my low opinion of dessert wines and so called after dinner wines.

Anyway, here's the advice

Drink and have fun before dinner, (never plan to drink without planning to have a meal), afterwards have a cognac or cordial and don't drink another drop. To do otherwise is a sign of bad breeding or a definite drinking problem.

Not that I always followed that advice and obviously it is often ignored, but it has never failed to work out well for me when followed.

Some of the better class drinkers I have known got around the advice by delaying dinner to the point of never getting around to it at all. When that happens it is every man for himself.

Some of the younger ones here may not know it but hard binge drinking was just short of an Olympic sport in the 70s. I was an enthusiastic player when I was young and I was surely saved from a bad end by my intolerance of hangovers.

I was jealous of my friends who bounced back with a little hair of the dog, sadly nothing worked for me but several days of abstention. The older I got the less it took to poison my system and the longer it took to get over it. Any attempt to mix in a few social glasses of wine with the vodka and scotch, just made it worse.

I never cared for beer or wine and by my 60s I was down to 2-3 drinks every month or so. That has dwindled down to every 4-5 months in recent years. Most of my drinking buddies are dead so there is not much temptation.

Truthfully I miss the camaraderie and the social part of drinking. It is great fun for the participants but frankly it is hardly ever fun for a non-participant, even when the drinkers are tippling in moderation.