Although Richard Gere has starred in more than 50 movies over the past several decades and uttered at least a million different lines, when it comes to buying wine he uses the same few phrases over and over and over again. “My wife and I have a problem and we’re hoping you can help,” he began. Then he paused—a very long, dramatic pause, doubtless discomforting many a wine merchant or sommelier—before continuing: “I like a big, oaky Chardonnay and she likes a wine that’s crisp and dry. What do you suggest?”

I was having dinner with the silver-haired screen star and his wife, actress Carey Lowell (a former model and Bond girl), at the Barn, one of the two restaurants at the Bedford Post Inn in Bedford, N.Y., which the couple happens to own.

Sommeliers and wine merchants usually take a stab at this wine conundrum, Mr. Gere said. “Although, one time,” he added, “I was in a wine shop and I started to ask this young kid and he got a kind of panicked look on his face and said, ‘I’d better get the manager for you. I don’t know how to solve marital problems.’ “