Let it Breathe
Sometimes like people wine needs to breathe and chill out before you drink it to get to experience the wine’s true potential. Especially if the wine is really an alcoholic muscular red wine and it is very young. You need to open the bottle and pour it into a decanter or a water carafe to allow the wine to aerate and release its flavor compounds.
Serve wine at the right temperature
Many times, white wines are served too cold and red wines too warm. When wine is served cold, the coldness mutes the wine from expressing its aromas and its full range of flavor compounds.
If you are serving a more complex wine that is fruity and perfumed such as an Argentinean Torrontés then take it out of the fridge and pour it into a glass and let it open for five minutes before tasting it. For red wines, particularly the light aromatic, juicy ones place them in the fridge for a half-hour before tasting it. You will find that the aromas will become more intense, fresher, and fruitier.
Most of all experiencing how the wine evolves in your glass over time is what many wine people enjoy.
Use the Right Glass
Wine is to be enjoyed. There is no need to get stressed out about what glass to use. At the end of the day, use what you have and simply enjoy your wine. However, if you want to taste and appreciate the nuances of the wine in your glass it can make a difference in what glass shape you use. True wine enthusiasts make the entire wine-taking experience a once-in-a-lifetime type of experience. The glass smiths also know the relevance of crafting each wine glass based on what it serves.
“What most consumers don’t realize is that they will naturally gravitate to the varietal of wine that best suits their palate. The glass becomes an extension of the wine and its unique characteristics. Each glass is designed the way it is because it is the best-fit wine glass style for enjoying that variety of wine.” –Mark Baulderstone, the Managing Director for Riedel Australia.
If you want to keep your bubbles in your sparkling wine for longer then you will want to use a flute shape glass. Carbon dioxide travels up the glass and keeps the bubbles bubbly longer when you serve it in a flute.
For white wine, you want to keep the glass bowl narrower and smaller. This helps concentrate the perfume – flavors, and aromas – of the wine and keeps the wine cooler. This wine glass works well with any white wine that is citrusy, juicy, and perfumed such as a Chenin Blanc, Sauvignon Blanc, or a Riesling.
To help aerate the wine, do not forget to swirl it. There is a reason why wine people swirl their glasses. It is not to be purely pretentious. It does really helps open up the wine during the tasting process.
How to hold your wine glass
Champagne and sparkling wine are served in a flute glass shape. Always hold the flute glass from the bottom of the stem. This will prevent you from heating up the wine.
For white wine, you can hold your white wine at the base of the glass or pinch the stem between your fingers.
For red wine, you can hold your red wine at the base of the glass or the bowl between your fingers. Cupping the bowl of the glass allows you to warm up the wine in the glass.
Note you can do this for both red and white wine. You would only want to cup the bowl of the glass for the white wine if someone serves you a white wine that is perhaps too cold for you to appreciate the flavors and aromas of the wine. It is perfectly acceptable for you to hold the white wine glass by the bowl until it warms up to your liking.
Pairing your wine with the right foods
Red wine and cheese are an iconic pairing but many times combining these items does not do either the wine or cheese justice. Cheese can have very high acidity particularly goat and sheep cheeses and hard cheeses as well such as cheddar. When you match these cheeses with a red wine, which often does not have the same acidity – the red wine could have some higher tannins and alcohol – it is going to clash with the cheese. This combination can exacerbate the acidity, tannins, and alcohol levels in the wine. It will dry out your wine and your cheese.
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