AGING & STORING
CORK OR SCREWTOP?
DECANTING
DRINKING TEMPERATURES
HEALTH BENEFITS
SNIFFING & SWOOSHING: Tasting How To
WINE GLASS 101
AGING & STORING
Let’s face it. Most of the wine we buy is consumed within the first week of purchase. There are days that we open up right away! But let’s just imagine that you splurge on a beautiful red wine that has naturally high tannins. Stored properly, this wine can be tamed by aging it. There is no point in aging a non-tannic wine, like a Riesling. Chill, serve and enjoy.
In general however basic rules apply:
1. Keep it somewhere cool (around 55°, the temperature of a drafty European castle or cellar). Our homes tend to be about 70° so if you’re serious about aging the wine, invest in a wine fridge.
2. Stay away from direct light.
3. If you are aging, place wine in a horizontal position to keep the cork moist. If the cork dries out, air could go into your wine and spoil it. Rotate occasionally to keep the seal tight.
CORK OR SCREWTOP?
There’s nothing like the pop a cork makes and it will forever be a preferred topping to wine bottles. But it is prone to mold or can shrink letting air damage your wine. And then there’s the unthinkable product of cork – the little floaters in the wine (you know you’ve done it at least once).
Plastic corks are being experimented with, as are synthetic cork.
But a twist top wine? Seriously? Don’t scoff. As of 2000, almost all Australian Rieslings from Clare Valley switched over to this new topper making them the first upscale wines throughout the world to forego cork. Wines that don’t need to age just need to stay fresh and you can’t get more air tight. And if you don’t finish the bottle, nothing’s better at keeping the odors from your refrigerator out of your bottle. So don’t scoff the twist top. It’s probably coming from a maverick wine maker who might be just as bold with their wine – making it worth a shot.
DECANTING
Your table is elegantly set and you bring out the crystal decanter filled with a gorgeous red liquid. How fancy are you?
News flash – you may just be creating more dishes to wash.
Let an older wine breathe a little before serving, but there’s only a couple of reasons you want to actually decant:
1. You are not patient (not many of us are) and you open up a wine that’s not quite mature. What the heck does that mean? It’s probably still too tannic (and not in a good way). You’ve tasted this wine before undoubtedly – the one that made your tongue pucker? Give that youngie some air. Pour it with vigor into the decanter and swish it from time to time to help mellow it out. You’ll still have a wine high in tannin, but the extra air you just provided it should help turn it into a very drinkable wine.
2. Sludge. Yes, unfiltered wines or aged wines that have settlement should be decanted VERY SLOWLY. Don’t loose the flavor or scent, just watch to filter out the particles. It is helpful to hold up a flashlight or candle (going back to being fancy) and look for the settlement before it enters into the decanter.
DRINKING TEMPERATURES
Scientists, take out your meat thermometers. Just kidding!! Let’s not complicate our drinking here – it just cuts into actual drinking time. White and sparkling should be chilled. Easy one. Sparkling is the coldest of course – 20 minutes in an ice bucket often does the trick. Do not overchill your whites though and take them out of the ice once corked.
Red should be served room temperature, right? Not in America. Let’s go back to that charming European castle and find that their room temperature is around 55°, not 70° like in America. So, put your red in the fridge and take it out 15 minutes prior to serving and you should be about right. The flavor difference is amazing!
HEALTH BENEFITS
The other day, we saw a day spa tout their new grape seed facial. Evidently, the health benefits of wine, especially red wine, is all the rage right now. With antioxidants on the rise and wine with tannin having an abundance of them, why not ride the health craze. Moderate consumption is even associated with reduced risk of coronary disease.
Men translate a little more of the benefits than women. What this boils down to is for men a safe amount of wine to drink each day would be about 3 glasses, or a half a bottle. Women can safely drink only about 1-2 glasses of wine per day. This is a bio-chemical reaction and how each processes alcohol. Women tend to cause the high blood pressure in men anyhow, so perhaps there’s a link to them needing more? Scientists have not commented on this theory, but we’re all for any study that says drinking a glass a day can be healthy for you.
SNIFFING & SWOOSHING: TASTING BASICS
So, you’re given a glass of wine and you don’t want to look like a complete doofus – we all want to look like we know what the heck we’re doing. Follow these steps and you’ll get mistaken for an expert every time:
1. Hold the glass by the stem, NOT the base. Your hands can warm the wine up and change the flavor.
2. Look at it with the light shining into it with something white behind it. Each varietal has it’s own color character.
3. Swirl the wine in the glass to infuse air into the wine and release the smell. Get your nose into the glass and take deep but short breaths – watch a dog smell something and you’ll understand that long breaths are not always as effective. It feels odd to sniff your food so much, but don’t be afraid to repeat several times to really get all of the smells identified. Look at the Wino Glossary for tips on the type of wine you are tasting. If you read that Chardonnay has butter or Cabernet Sauvignon has Black Cherry, sniff for it. It doesn’t mean you will smell all of it in every wine, but study your cheat sheets and soon you’ll be able to identify them all on your own.
4. Sip it. Leave room for air in your mouth so the flavor can play in there.
5. Swish for 3 seconds, swallow and immediately release air out of your nose. Notice the flavor and smell that is released. For more information, watch the movie “French Kiss”.
6. Repeat often.
WINE GLASS 101
As long as it’s glass, not plastic, and has a stem, your wine will probably survive the trip from bottle to mouth. Honestly, there is a different glass for each varietal but I don’t have that much cupboard space (or brain power) for all of that barware. The general rules, because Winos like to at least know the rules (makes us look smart) are:
1. Whites need smaller openings because you want to hold onto their fresh, fruity, floral sensations.
2. Bigger glasses (some bordering on Big Gulp size) allow red wines to smooth out and round down any tannins or harshness.
3. Sparkling wines should be served in flutes or tulips, NOT in those flat useless things molded from Marie Antoinette’s breast that only hold two sips. The coupe, as this glass is called, allows bubbles to escape too quickly, the wine warms up too quickly by hands and again only hold two sips. Why bother? Stick with an elegant flute or tulip. A tulip is most popular in the region of Champagne and resembles a deep white wine glass with a round bowl. Personally, it’s not quite as fun as watching the bubbles rise in a flute.
A note on those trendy stemless wine glasses – don’t. Your hand will warm up the wine and you’ll lose a lot of scent and flavor.
Washing your glasses should never be done in the dishwasher and preferably not with soap. Rinse them completely with hot water and dry them with paper towels to avoid having any of the taste or flavors from your soaps or laundry softeners to be passed along to your wine. We didn’t believe it would make a difference either, but it does.
