Modern etiquette allows it, but Bringing Your Own Bottle is not really a time-honoured tradition in Malta. In most restaurants it’s just not ‘done’ to bring your own special bottle to complement the meal.

However, bringing an exceptional bottle of wine, which is most likely not on the restaurant’s wine list anyway, could add to the dining experience while permitting you to save money – especially at the prices some restaurateurs charge for wine.

It’s just that restaurants too often present a too limited and unexciting wine list with a preponderance of (the same) worldwide distributed brands of imported generic labels, or worse still, poor wines in funny, asymmetrical bottles.

Often wine is selected on the basis of building up a list of passable high margin wines at low cost, rather than anything truly worthwhile. But keen wine enthusiasts simply love trying something out of the ordinary from time to time.

Of course, no-one here is out to alienate the proprietor and everybody should be prepared to pay a corkage fee, let’s say anywhere from Lm1 to Lm3 per bottle, and include the value of the wine when tipping the waiter.

Few restaurant owners do allow BYOB, since they know it makes for a loyal customer and attracts wine lovers. Probably it’s worth checking out the restaurant’s policy when making dinner reservations next time round.

Even if carting along a basic Pauillac as for example Les Carruades, effectively Château Lafite’s 'second wine', is not appreciated, one might find another gem on the restaurant’s wine list and save that long treasured bottle for another occasion.

And, while some people think that BYOB to a restaurant is not appropriate or status flattering, they would never dream of crossing a friend’s doorstep without a bottle of wine in hand.

One of the touchier questions of modern good manners is whether you are duty-bound to open that bottle that’s been given to you. Can you keep it under cork and savour it on another occasion?

Well, if the brown bag holds a bottle of white or sparkling wine ready-chilled or a bottle of red already carefully decanted, and your friend says ‘I really wonder how that’ll taste’, then this should probably be taken as a fairly strong hint. Cheers!

Wary restaurateurs rest assured; Georges Meekers dines home most of the time.