Accessorize Your Wine Cupboard
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 extraneous equipment to serve alcoholic beverages may seem pompus 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 equipment back into circulation; after all, what’s the use in splashing out on a decent bottle of plonk if we’re not going to get the most out of it? Most of us simply pour the wine hastily 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 ensure your wine is the desired temperature, whites and champagnes are best served cold so if you are having a family gathering or BBQ, invest in a cooler to keep it at a constant 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 utilise an arealator which allows additional oxygen to the bottle, allowing the wine to release it’s aroma more effectively. A decanter of course performs a similar function. In the improbable event that you don’t drink all of your wine, a stopper is an absolute must so it doesn’t take on the whiff of left-over curry from your fridge-freezer. Of course if you really knew your stuff you’d have a rickety old wine rack wine the basement! There are some cheap devices to make your next glass of vino into a taste and smell sensation rather than just a drink.
Tags: Alsace wines, Australain wine, Italian Wine
