Thanks Mike, but I am not a poly kind of guy. I know it's improved but I still see that plastic look in my head. I much prefer Shellac, thats my favorite. But this is a wine cabinet for my sister so can't use shellac. So it's lacquer or varnish for it.
Thanks for pointing out about the retarder. That makes a lot of sense.
All of finishing is a matter of opinion so you should use what you feel comfortable with. Lacquer for a wine cabinet should work well. And if you want to put a real shine on it, you can rub it out.
Regarding poly and shellac, I'll give my opinion - for what that's worth. I'm not a big fan of shellac. It doesn't hold up to water or alcohol. If someone sets a wet glass on a table finished with shellac, it will leave a ring. Commercial furniture makers gave up on shellac a long time ago (maybe the 1920's). Those coasters that everyone uses for drinks are a leftover from shellac finished tables. Today, commercial furniture is finished with catalyzed lacquer and you can't hardly hurt that stuff - water, alcohol, heat (up to some limit) has no effect on it. It doesn't even chip very easily.
Modern poly is pretty good stuff. It doesn't shine like lacquer but it definitely doesn't look like plastic. In my opinion, it just looks like lacquer but just a bit duller in finish. For a kitchen table, poly is a good finish if you can't use catalyzed finishes. Shellac would never hold up with the water and heat that a kitchen table gets. Lacquer is better, but it melts when heated so if someone puts a pot or hot dish on the table, you get a mark from the lacquer melting.
The only thing I use shellac for is as a sealer (dewaxed shellac) - and then I put my final finish over the shellac. Shellac is good in that application because you can put any finish over it since it's alcohol based. Water based or solvent based finishes don't melt the shellac so your surface prep (stain, etc.) stays the way you did it.
But anyway, as I said, it's all an opinion, and that's my opinion.
Mike
[I hadn't seen Charlie's posting when I posted the above. Charlie has lots of good experience (more than me) and I would go with his recommendations.]