Whether it is an everyday wine or a precious old vintage, careful pouring, the right temperature, the choice of the suitable glass are very important to make the bottle stand out. In this article, we’ll go back to the first steps of serving wine; steps that many sometimes dare to forget casually.
Opportunity
Serving wine includes everything that happens between the choice of the wine and the enjoyment of it in the glass. Do this as relaxed as possible. A corkscrew and a glass is all you need when the wine is simple, the opportunity is casual and the decision to open the bottle may have been spontaneous.
But even a simple bottle tastes better at the right temperature and in the right glass. Lots of pleasure can be had when the correct way of serving is followed, especially when the wine is a little better and the occasion a little more solemn.
Time
Gun wine time is very important when serving wine. A bottle placed on the table straight from the shopping bag will never give the best of itself. This is more or less possible with everyday wines, but better and older wines suffer if they are moved and only regain their balance and character after a rest period, preferably in a cool, dark place. For some fine wines (those that tend to develop bottled sediment) stability is vital. Be farsighted and place such wines upright two days before drinking them so that the sediment can settle on the bottom of the bottle instead of the side. Allow the bottles to cool or warm up before meals.
The right glass
Wine tastes different and better if you drink it from the right glass. Shape, format and material are the most important factors in the choice of glass. Only then follows the tradition of most wine regions, which have their own favorite shapes and even colors of glasses, matching their local wine. Make sure you get them out of the cupboard or the box in time so that all bad smells are gone. You should preferably do the dishes by hand in warm, clean water, with or without a little washing-up liquid. Use a dust-free linen cloth to dry them.
A wine glass must be convex and have the shape of a closed tulip, so that the wine aroma is, as it were, enclosed in it. A shallow glass has too large a surface and cannot retain the aroma. Also necessary is a sufficiently long pedestal so that the glass can be held without the hand coming into contact with the chalice. For example, a glass of chilled wine will quickly be heated by hand.
A glass should be large enough so that it does not need to be filled more than one fourth or one third. If the glass is too small or too full, the wine cannot be rolled around to release its aroma and the glass cannot be tilted to view the contents. A normal glass will serve about 90 ml of wine, so a glass should hold about 270 ml. Many glasses designed for red wine can hold more. Avoid extremely large glasses. For red wine, one with a capacity of 350-400 ml is ideal. An exception to the rule is the champagne flute; a tall and slim glass designed to show the color and bubbles of sparkling wine. It is three quarters full.
The best wine glasses are clear and made of unadorned uncut glass. Cut crystal and glasses decorated with gold may be attractive in their own right, but are not suitable for appreciating and enjoying wine. Colored glass makes it impossible to judge the color of the wine. The best material for a wine glass is the finest crystal you can afford. Crystal glasses are optimally clear, so that you can appreciate the color of the wine undisturbed.
Comparative tests have shown that the fineness of the glass contributes to the enjoyment of the wine. But material comes third after shape and format. Many wine aficionados avoid the precious and fine crystals because the concern of breaking them (when clinking, for example) gets in the way of pleasure.
Order of serving
Habit dictates the order of wine serving and its place on the menu. The usage is: white wine before red, young before old, light before heavy, dry before sweet, small before fine or rare. White wines with the first courses of the meal, red wines with the main course.
Do not serve a dominant, aromatic wine like Gewürztraminer to expect a delicate Burgundy to come out well afterwards. Powerful young wine can outpace older wine. Consider the character of the wine and consider that neighbors are good partners: a Sancerre, followed by a Chinon, a white Graves and then a Médoc. All these “principles” are dictated by common sense, but it is scarcely thought of how transient they are. They change over time and from country to country. When serving different wines at the same time, make sure there is some break between the different wines and always have enough water at the table.