Grape Gossip, How to Serve Wine

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Is there any better sound than the ‘pop’ of wine being uncorked, or the gentle sigh released by a bottle of champagne? The ceremony of opening and serving wine is for many people an essential part of the wine experience, but for others it’s a minefield of spilt liquid and broken windows. The following tips should put an end to your nightmares.

Equipment

Basically, all you need is a couple of glasses and a corkscrew (yes, I know your bottle’s got a screw cap, very funny), but make sure that the corkscrew is hollow and straight, otherwise the cork will be ripped to shreds, and you’ll end up with a mouthful of tree.

If you want to use an ice bucket, make sure you fill it with HALF ICE, HALF WATER (water is a great conductor and helps to cool the bottle quicker). Have a glass cloth handy to wipe the bottle as cold water on the lap often offends.

For decanting wine, you’ll need some sort of straining/funnel device. There are quite a lot of these on the market, but if you prefer the more traditional approach, a funnel, combined with a piece of muslin, or even a ladies stocking (clean, of course) works perfectly.

Temperature

As an everyday rule, white wine, sweet wine, champagne and rose should be served cold, and red wine (with a few notable exceptions) at room temperature. Remember though that Room Temperature as winos (sorry, I mean wine experts) like me see it is around 16-18 Celsius, not the more modern 20 degrees. Whites can (and often are) served too cold, so that their character is masked by the chill. Try taking your bottle out of the fridge a few minutes before opening to take the edge off.

If you want to be really precise, wine thermometers allow a more exact measurement, and normally come with a guide to correct serving temperatures for different wines.

By the way, Fino Sherry and Tawny Port are great chilled as well – try it, you might like it.



Service Etiquette

Service etiquette is best left to restaurants and country houses – most of the time, I’m content just to enjoy my wine. However, there are some rules to follow should the queen pop in for dinner:

Taste the wine before you serve it, in case it’s corked. Don’t be afraid to send wine back, either in a restaurant or to a wine shop. About 5% of bottles have some sort of fault, even those with screwcaps,so we won’t be surprised. Just remember that it’s not our fault!
Don’t pour too much – a good guideline is a third, or to the widest point of the glass, whichever is less. Be even stingier with dessert wine or port (but more generous with champagne)
Pour in a clockwise direction from the guest of honour, from the right of the guest.
Don’t mix bottles in the same glass – what if you’ve missed a corked bottle and ruin Her Majesty’s perfectly good glass of ‘76 Margaux?
Port should be poured to the person on your right and then passed to your left. If your glass is empty, the polite thing to do is ask the person who has the decanter ‘Did you know the Bishop of Norwich’. If they answer ‘No’, you may respond ‘he was a frightfully good chap, but he never passed the port’.
This is actually true!

How To Open a Bottle of Champagne

1. Chill the bottle well

2. Remove the foil

3. Loosen the cage. As soon as you do this, keep hold of the cork at all times

4. Hold the cork and cage with your strong hand and twist the bottle (not the cork) from the bottom with your weak hand. I find that attempting to push the cork back into the bottle as it comes out helps to remove it slowly and gently.

When the cork comes out, the wine should sigh gently, ‘the virgin’s sigh’, rather than pop.

If you’re worried about flying corks, cover the top cork with a glass cloth and grip it through this, whilst holding the bottom edge of the cloth with your bottom hand.

Feeling Brave? Feel like showing off? You need a Champagne sword!

This showy (and dangerous) method is best left to the professionals, and involves running a sword down the seam of the bottle and firmly into the lip, which breaks cleanly from the bottle. DON’T TRY THIS AT HOME...

Decanting

Decanting allows a wine to breathe, releasing all the beautiful aromas and flavours you are hoping for, but you don’t need a fancy decanter – a glass jug will do, and with most wines, all you need to worry about is pouring the wine into the jug. Older wines, however need a little more care, especially reds which may have thrown a sediment.

1. Take the wine out of your rack well in advance of serving and stand upright to allow any sediment fall to the bottom of the bottle and settle.

2. Open the wine gently, removing the entire foil cap.

3. Place a funnel in the decanter, along with some sort of filter.

4. Place a candle next to the decanter, under where the bottle’s neck will be when you pour.

5. Slowly pour the wine into the funnel. When you start to see sediment in the neck of the bottle (that’s why the candle’s there), stop pouring.

P.S. there is absolutely no point in opening wine an hour in advance and then leaving the wine in the bottle – the surface area in contact with the air is negligible, and will have little effect on the wine. If you have nothing to decant into, why not open the bottle in advance and pour a glass – then you can drink it while you wait for the wine to be ready for your guests!

Washing Up

I find that getting someone else to do it works best