Care to see the wine list?
For some people it is compiling one's own Desert Island Discs; for others, listing the 10 best movies ever filmed. But for the wine connoisseur, there is nothing that quite matches drawing up a list of the greatest wines ever made.
Enjoyable as it may be, it is also highly controversial. Who can say how the Chateau Latour 1961 compares with the La Moutonne Chablis of 1990 - let alone the 1988 Dom Perignon?
Come to that, has anyone alive ever actually tasted the Chateau D'Yquem 1921? And does it actually mean anything when a single bottle of the legendary Chateau Mouton Rothschild 1945 costs around £3,500? If, that is, you can get hold of it at all?
However, Decanter magazine has decided to stick its neck out and publish a list of 100 Wines To Try Before You Die.
The list was drawn up by a panel of wine experts - including Hugh Johnson, Serena Sutcliffe, Andrew Jefford and Michael Broadbent of Christie's - who were encouraged to think of wines to go with a Last Supper.
The idea was to ensure that the list included a selection of aperitifs, champagnes and dessert wines, rather than just the usual big-name grands crus of Bordeaux and Burgundy.
But it was noticeable that, for all its current problems in the international wine market, France still provided two-thirds of the world's all-time greats, against only eight from the New World.
The greatest wine of all was deemed to be the Chateau Mouton Rothschild 1945, which Michael Broadbent described in Decanter as "intense, concentrated, indescribable, with years of life left".
Serena Sutcliffe called it "the most complete claret ever".
Second was Chateau D'Yquem 1921 - "one of the miracles of the last century" according to wine writer David Peppercorn - followed by Chateau Latour 1961, which Chris Munro of Christie's called "almost beyond words - a pure, port-like majestic wine with hints of mint, cedar and great concentration of fruit".
The list is not all famous expensive wines, however. The top 100 includes wines from Italy, Germany, Australia, the US, Spain, Hungary, Austria, New Zealand and Portugal.
The cheapest? An obscure red wine called Charriage made by the Bunan family at Moulin des Costes in the Bandol region of southern France. The 1998, says the magazine, should cost £10.
