Something to Wine About
Posted by The Editorial Desk / Tuesday, July 20th, 2010
Wine bars pour out great hospitality with each glass, but here’s what to do when it’s time to be on the other end of the bottle.
Step One: Choices, choices, choices!
If you are hosting a dinner party with guests you may start by choosing a wine that pairs well with the food. Generally red meats go with red wines while lighter dishes with chicken or fish pair better with white whines. If your dinner has multiple courses, one usually begins with the lighter white wines. Move to reds with heavier courses and finish with a port or other sweet dessert wine.
Step Two: Temperature
After you’ve selected your wine, make sure that it will be served at a proper temperature. Rose, white and sparkling wines are best served chilled.
Step Three: Pre-service
(video: YouTube)
Perhaps their tip to not decant older wines needs to be recanted. If you don’t own a decanter, you can open the bottle and let it sit for a while, but this takes more time and is not as effective.
Be sure to check for cork taint before you serve the wine. To do this, taste the wine. Don’t worry – this doesn’t mean it is poison, so you can stop selecting the dinner guest who gets to act as food-tester. If the wine tastes like wet cardboard, the cork may have been affected by mold and thus ruined the contents of the bottle. That, or it is really cheap wine.
Step Four: The Pour
(video: YouTube)
Correct glassware is also worth considering: larger, bowl-bottomed glasses for the reds, less wide-mouthed glasses for whites and roses, flutes for sparklies and port glasses for the dessert wines – they’re the ones that resemble a shot glass with a stem.
(image: The Food Section)
Step Five: Drink and be merry
One of the most important rules of wine etiquette is to enjoy your wine! The world of wine is full of specific terminology and proper policies that are meant to enhance your wine experience, not to cause anxiety or interfere with your personal preferences. Although there are methods of serving that stoop far below the usual standards, my best advice is to raise your glass with pride and to drink your wine with good company.
-Jamel Daugherty