Grappling With The Grape

I am a frustrated sommelier, meaning that I am not a sommelier in profession. I rather think of myself as an individual who is wholly passionate about wines. I like reading about them. My coffee table is stocked with wine-booklets and guides. I have also attended a couple of wine appreciation courses that include wine tastings, dinners and exhibitions. I love drinking wines; examining its ruby-red or golden coloring. I am not the only person with such fascination with this “elixir of life” as I coin it. I have met a lot of individuals who are also interested about wine and want to learn as much as they can about it. Nonetheless, due to their busy schedules and other commitments they are unable to find time to attend wine tastings and the like.

In this article, I will provide some handy tips to enable wine-lovers like me achieve our much-coveted sommelier status.

Chilling the Wine. It usually happens that a couple of your dearest friends would pop-up in your place for a nice dinner. There is a pleasant bottle of white wine at hand, but it is not cold. What to do then? Stick the white wine into the bucket half-filled with ice and water. Add ample amount of salt into the water, this will cause the temperature to drop a few more notches. You can serve your wine for about ten minutes.

Serving Wine. There are great strategies in serving wines. For sparkling wine, pour it over the side of glass so not to loss the bubbles. For still wines, the centre of the glass would be great because it enables the bouquet to slide into the vessel. Always fill a wine glass no more than two-thirds.

Judging the Quality. When asked on how you think about the wine, you may employ the following vocabulary to judge its quality. The wine is clean and clear. Good wines tastes and smell fresh, enticing and delectable. The wine is pleasing to the palate, meaning that even if it is light and delicate it is still rich and sit pleasingly on the tongue. It is complex. Most wines are combinations of fruits, earthy flavors, with a hint of oak. A good quality wine has more than one flavor. The wine is balanced. A good wine must have a balance of all the elements- fruit, alcohol, acid and oak.

So it is quite expected that bad wines are opposites of the good ones. They are dirty and bland. They don’t smell good, languid and pretty boring. Bad wines are thin and dilute much like drinking a beverage with added water. They are simple with only one sizable flavor. Bad wines taste sharp, stingy, woody or too overwhelming. Lastly, bad wines have a very fleeting taste that disappears at the back of the throat. Not giving you ample time to examine its texture.

Once Opened, Wine Last For About…

One to two days for light white and red wines like Riesling and Pinot Noir, Sparkling and Pink Wines.

Three to Four Days for Full-bodied reds and whites like Shiraz and Chardonnay, as well as Sweet White Wines.

One to Two Weeks for pale dry sherry and vintage port. And at least three months for Tawny port, Muscat, Tokay and Sweet Sherry.