Wine And More
We all love a nice glass of wine, whether it’s an Italian wine after a tough day at work or an Australian wine with friends and family at an al-fresco dinner party, for some of us however, a bottle and a glass is simply not sufficient for extracting maximum enjoyment from our poison of choice. While using additional equipment to serve alcoholic beverages may seem fussy and unnecessary to some, you may be surprised to learn that decanters were being used by the ancient Greeks thousands of years go. It emerges then that aids tio wine drtinking a not some superfluous 21st century product, they simply fell out of fashion in our convenience obsessed and time-poor culture.
It is time to start bringing this kind of kit back into general usage; after all, what’s the use in splashing out on a decent grpae if we’re not going to get maximum enjoyment out of it? Most of us hurriedly deposit the wine into an unsuitable glass, get it down the hatch and be done with it. This is not the way to enjoy a fine vintage. The first job is to make sure your wine is the correct temperature, whites and champagnes are best served chilled so if you are having a dinner party or BBQ, invest in a cooler to maintain a stable temperature.
When the wine is the desired temperature, ensure you de-cork carefully and with a well made cork-screw to avoid unsightly lumps floating around in your fine vinatge. While we’re on the subject of glasses, get some better ones! A long stem will allow you hold the glasses without warming the wine with your hand, while a wide bowel will allow the aroma of the wine to circulate, enhancing the drinking experience, especially with Alsace wines.
Once the wine is open it would be a good idea to use an arealator to introduce more oxygen to the bottle, allowing the wine to breath. A decanter of course performs a similar function. In the unlikely event that you don’t polish off all of your wine, a stopper is an absolute essential so it doesn’t inherit the smell of left-over pizza from your fridge. Of course if you really knew your stuff you’d have a rickety old wine rack wine the basement! There are some simple products to make your next glass of wine into a taste and smell explosion rather than just a drink.
Tags: Alsace wines, Australain wine, Italian Wine