First it was the three-martini lunch. Gone.

(I have to say, it was never a great idea. The last time I had one of those, about 25 years ago at the old Ritz-Carlton Hotel in Boston, I was with a former U.S. Assistant Attorney General who drank his three and became enamored of a woman dining alone at a table near us. He decided to win her affections by bringing over the remains of his half-eaten chocolate cake, never doubting that she would swoon with pleasure. I'm proud to say I held him back.)

Now it's the ritual of wine with lunch. Almost gone.

This is Wine Week at the Smith & Wollensky Restaurant Group. That means that the nine Smith & Wollensky steakhouses throughout the United States, as well as five other restaurants operated by the group only in New York, are offering luncheon customers tastes of 10 different wines for $10 through this Friday, March 23.

Quite often, vintners show up to pour their wines. It's cheap. It's fun. Some of the profits go to charity. It's even educational, since you will certainly taste wines you haven't tried before. The wines selected for the tastings are not from jugs, nor are they the bum stuff in bins found just inside the front door of wine shops.

Perfect, right? Not quite. I'm sad to admit that I'm one of those cowardly people who no longer drink wine at lunch.

I love wine with lunch. I have always thought that wine is better in the light of day, when it sparkles, than at night, when it broods. Wine at lunch makes me happy. Wine at night makes me sleepy. Still, I stopped, because that seemed the prudent thing to do.

I suggest those of you who no longer drink wine at lunch try it this week. (Persons who operate heavy machinery or drive school buses are requested to ignore this advice.) See if it makes you happy. I know I haven't been quite the same since I stopped.

I remember taking a fellow to lunch at the restaurant L'Express in Montreal. He was a hard-working civil servant in a tedious job, and he drank an entire bottle, as he did every day at lunch.He said to me, "My friends ask me, 'How can you possibly drink a bottle of wine and go back to work in the afternoon?' "

I asked him what he told them.

He replied to me, "I tell them, 'How can I possibly go back to work if I do not?'"