HAVE you ever been in the situation in a restaurant with a group of colleagues, the sour dough bread rolls have just been passed around, and you get handed the wine list with the task of picking for everyone?

This can be a daunting challenge as you probably won't particularly know everyone's preferences, and they'll all have ordered different food. So, what goes with rack of lamb, chicken supreme, spicy enchiladas and Caesar salad? You also have the trauma of deciding how expensive to go; you don't want to go too cheap and Brian from accounting won't let you go too expensive. It's a minefield!

Well, as your intrepid wine dude, I have a few suggestions. The house wines will be acceptable as most restaurants will sell 10 times as much of their house red and white than they will the second wine on the list. It will be a crowd-pleaser and a safe bet, but you could be more adventurous.

Picking the Chilean Merlot is not a bad call. Most wine lists will have one and most people will like it. It should be good-quality, and will match all of the dishes on the table. If the list includes a Chilean Carmenere, you could be impress the boss by saying that the Carmenere would be a good choice as it's like Merlot on steroids.

My last suggestion is slightly left-field. Ignore the house wine, and jump straight to the second of the list wines. (Not the top one, the second one). This is usually the favourite bottle of the wine expert that designed the list. He or she would love to sell more of it, so it's good value and it will be interesting and dynamic. Perhaps it will be an Austrian Gruner-Veltliner or a Malagousia from Greece. A bold choice, but one that is almost sure to end in promotion.

Pete Stewart is Glasgow director of Inverarity One to One, 185a Bath Street, Glasgow www.inverarity121.com