When you drink wine, stemware prevents condensation from damaging your tabletops. But, a chilled wine bottle can still put condensation on your table. The easiest way to prevent that from happening is to use a wine coaster.  Coasting Wine Across a Table Wine coasters originated in Great Britain, as upper-class wine drinkers needed a tool to slide (or coast) their wine bottles across the table at dinner parties. The earliest coasters were made of wood, and eventually, artisans began crafting them out of wood and silver. Silversmiths began showing off their skills with fancy designs.  Eventually, drinking wine at dinner parties became popular in the United States, too. The wealthy industrialists brought coasters from Europe and decorated their tables with sets as large as six. Often, the wine drinkers of the Industrial Revolution used decanters and rested them on the coasters.  Today, wine drinkers are no longer coasting their wine bottles and decanters across the tab