Dear Etiquetteer:
Is it ostentatious to openly display one’s liquor collection? My husband believes it is a fine, adult (and perhaps) classy thing to display one’s liquor in a glass case for all to see. What is your opinion on this matter?
Dear Liquored:
Unless it’s a bottle of Louis XIII cognac, which comes in its own crystal decanter, Etiquetteer would encourage your husband to consider decanters only, and store other bottles nearby in a closed cabinet. It’s more discreet to display decanters than bottles, or at least to have decanters in the front row. But there’s more to consider than just that.
First, what impression do you want your home to make on visitors? Is alcohol incidental, essential, or the entire purpose of entertaining in your home? Making the bar a visual focus will have an impact. Consider what impact you want it to have, unexceptional or unavoidable. There are some surprising and imposing design suggestions online if you search for “at home liquor cabinet,” but for Etiquetteer, they suggest Hotel more than Home.
Before this goes any further, a liquor cabinet is different from a wine cellar. While wine cellars are traditionally out of view, sometimes serious wine connoisseurs may have large climate-controlled cellars built into their homes, even taking up entire dining room walls with glass doors. Etiquetteer has less an issue with this type of display because the wines are shelved with the corks facing forward, making the labels invisible. Do we really want to see the labels of all those liquor bottles?
Some people would say “Yes!” And it would be foolish not to acknowledge that there’s just one kind of liquor — gin, for instance. (At the moment Etiquetteer has four different types of gin tucked into the home bar: bourbon barrel gin, orange gin, forager’s gin, and ordinary gin, in a decanter.)
But a home is a home, not a Product Placement Opportunity. And a motley collection of liquor bottles, no matter how beautifully or innovatively or exuberantly designed, rarely looks best when grouped together. Decanters usefully and elegantly display one’s liquors; everything else can be kept either behind them, or hidden from view. Millicent Fenwick praised several decanter styles in her Vogue’s Book of Etiquette: “. . . there are, however, many lovely decanters: simple ones in plain glass, old or new; magnificent old ones, or brilliantly cut crystal; simpler old ones of white pressed glass or of colored glass; modern ones of fine crystal, either plain or beautifully etched.” Perhaps this is a gift idea for your husband’s next milestone?
She goes on to suggest hanging labels of silver, china, or enamel “with a stout chain in proportion to the size of the label.” Etiquetteer uses neither, but tiny chalkboards on twine loops, designed to be used as napkin rings, a gift from a friend years ago. Not, perhaps, elegant, but a happy memory — and don’t we want to cultivate happy memories in our homes?
In general though, Etiquetteer thinks it best not to display something that isn’t going to be offered to anyone who sees it (Louis XIII cognac always being the exception). Keeping your liquor out of sight will keep your guests from helping themselves, too. Never forget the words of the late Max Fabian: “Don’t forget I’m the host. I got to get home before my guests start stealing the liquor!”
Etiquetteer wishes you many happy gatherings at home.