Many people ask me what is a good wine to drink. Perhaps the better question is how should I prepare and serve a bottle of wine.
Many wine drinkers pay a lot of attention to the price and ratings of wine, but they do not pay the same amount of attention to how a wine is prepared and served. Improper wine preparation is one of the reasons many people are disappointed when they drink very expensive or highly-rated wines. So here are a few tips that should improve any wine you decide to drink.
Temperature
In general, most wine drinkers drink white wines too cold and red wines too warm. Serving a white wine too cold takes away from its aromas. Serving a red wine too warm makes the wine flabby. I like to serve red wines between 18 and 21 degrees Celsius (slightly below normal room temperature). A quick way to get a red wine to this temperature is to put the wine in the refrigerator for about 10 to 15 minutes before drinking it. Even if the red wine is too cold, it will warm up gradually to the right temperature. For white wines, I like to serve them between 13 to 15 degrees Celsius but with very high-end white wines, I serve them closer to the temperature of red wines.
Decant everything
An unpopular opinion among most wine drinkers, I believe you should almost decant every wine you drink. Decanting a wine allows the wine to interact with oxygen quicker, which will soften the tannins in red wines and open up the aromas of both red and white wines. Many wines sold are very young and need time before they are ready for consumption. Almost all young wines will benefit from decanting. The only exceptions are inexpensive white wines and old red wines (which many people mistakenly decant for hours). In fact, with old red wines, you should either not decant or decant lightly just to get rid of the sediment as most older wines are very delicate (although there are many exceptions to this rule as well).
Using proper wine glasses
In general, you want a wine glass with a large bowl and a long stem so that you can swirl a wine easily and you can smell the aromas of wine. There are many wine glass producers that make wine glasses for specific types of wines. You will be amazed at how much more you can taste and smell when proper wine glasses are used.
Drinking orders of wines
Similar to what you eat may affect your taste buds, the order in which you drink wine may also affect the taste of a wine. In general, you want to drink white wines before red wines and lighter wines before heavier wines. I personally like to drink older wines before younger wines (assuming the older wine is lighter than the young wine).
My last tip is about the steps of drinking wine. Smell a wine for three seconds before you taste it and swirl the wine in your mouth for three seconds before you swallow. Your sense of taste is affected by your other senses and smelling a wine will enhance your ability to taste of the wine. Likewise, if you don’t have the wine in your mouth for very long, it will be hard for you to enjoy all the different flavours in the wine. That is why people say you should just gulp down medicine…because if you swallow it fast enough, you won’t taste it as much.
Hope these tips are useful and will enhance your enjoyment of wine. Until next time, happy drinking!
Tony Kwan is a lawyer by day, food and wine lover by night. Kwan is an epicurean who writes about wine, food and enjoying all that life has to offer.
