Learn to trust your wine instincts
Do you feel a little nervous about serving wine to guests? Are you worried about seeming pretentious or are you just intimidated by the whole thing? Well, it's time to pop a cork and relax; wine is fun and here are 10 ways to be a part of the good times.
1. Wine is delicious!
The swirling, the sniffing, the sipping. All of the fuss about wine would be pointless if wine wasn't just plain delicious. It's true that wine can have tastes that you're not used to or that aren't so great the first time you try them, but there are lots of starter wines that are easy to like and even more that turn delicious when you have them with food.
2. Wine tastes best at the right temperature
Common "knowledge" about wine is that you serve white wine well-chilled and red wine at room temperature. Surprisingly, that's wrong. Room temperatures in North America are just too warm to serve red wines. Most drinks are unappealing at 22C (72F) so why should wine be any different? Refrigerator temperature -3C (38F) is too cold for anything that you really want to taste.What to do? Try storing your red wine in the coolest part of the house or giving a bottle a brief cold water bath. Take the white wine out of the fridge 10 minutes before you serve it or at least let it warm up a bit in your glass.
3. It's usually better to air wine out
Any drink without bubbles tastes better if it's aerated a bit. Those decanters that you see aren't just decorative; they let you pour your wine out with a bit of splashing and get some air dissolved in it.
4. Make sure the (right) glass is half full
The best wine glass is shaped like a tulip and isn't much bigger. What makes it best is that the tulip shape helps capture the aromas of wine and transport them to your nose.
5. Your nose knows
Most of the pleasure that we call taste is really smell. That's why nothing really tastes good when your nose is stuffed up. So be sure to swirl the wine around in the glass, take big sniffs and enjoy!!
Click to continue for more essential wine tasting tips...
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1. Wine is delicious!
The swirling, the sniffing, the sipping. All of the fuss about wine would be pointless if wine wasn't just plain delicious. It's true that wine can have tastes that you're not used to or that aren't so great the first time you try them, but there are lots of starter wines that are easy to like and even more that turn delicious when you have them with food.
2. Wine tastes best at the right temperature
Common "knowledge" about wine is that you serve white wine well-chilled and red wine at room temperature. Surprisingly, that's wrong. Room temperatures in North America are just too warm to serve red wines. Most drinks are unappealing at 22C (72F) so why should wine be any different? Refrigerator temperature -3C (38F) is too cold for anything that you really want to taste.What to do? Try storing your red wine in the coolest part of the house or giving a bottle a brief cold water bath. Take the white wine out of the fridge 10 minutes before you serve it or at least let it warm up a bit in your glass.
3. It's usually better to air wine out
Any drink without bubbles tastes better if it's aerated a bit. Those decanters that you see aren't just decorative; they let you pour your wine out with a bit of splashing and get some air dissolved in it.
4. Make sure the (right) glass is half full
The best wine glass is shaped like a tulip and isn't much bigger. What makes it best is that the tulip shape helps capture the aromas of wine and transport them to your nose.
5. Your nose knows
Most of the pleasure that we call taste is really smell. That's why nothing really tastes good when your nose is stuffed up. So be sure to swirl the wine around in the glass, take big sniffs and enjoy!!
Click to continue for more essential wine tasting tips...
Page 1 of 2
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