When you have a good bottle of wine, it will cheer things up and make the party. It is imperative that you know what to pick and then serve it the proper way. Keep reading to learn what you should know about wine.
Get to know your local wine shop. Every store is different. Each market has different varieties, prices and general focus of wines. If you are new to wine, you may want to start with a smaller wine shop. Find a place where you are comfortable.
Store your wine in the right way if you wish to preserve its flavor. Temperatures to any extreme can damage your wine’s taste. Let these wines develop their flavors by storing them at about 50 or so degrees. If you have a cool basement, it is perfect for storing wine. You can also purchase a wine refrigerator for this purpose.
Wine Cellar
To get more value and life from your wines, get a wine cellar. This can be helpful if you tend to collect expensive wines that you plan on storing for a long time. Any wine that will be kept for an amount of time can be preserved well within a wine cellar.
Never allow a sulfite warning to alarm you. Every wine contains sulfites, but the warning is only required from American distributors. Sulfites have the ability to trigger allergies in some, though if you have never had a problem with them, you need not worry.
Don’t fill your house with only the wines you enjoy at the moment. You might want to fill your cellar, but you may not like the same wines in the future. This means, the wines you enjoy at the moment, might not be the wines you enjoy later on down the road. You don’t want to end up with a wine cellar full of wines you have tired of, so vary your selections.
Vintage means that it is the year the grapes were harvested, not when the wine was actually made. Thus, a 2010 vintage contains grapes harvested in that year. They would then be fermented and aged in barrels until the wine was bottled and sold. The wine may not have been on store shelves for a couple of years.
It can be fun to try out different wines. Do not always buy the same wine, it gets boring. Try different flavors or brands of wine to find one that you love. You may even save a couple bucks along the way.
Do not allow someone’s opinion to change your taste in wine. Some say that the single best wine is the one you like. It is a great rule to go by. Your taste is your own, and you should not let others dictate it. If your friends do not like the wine, you get to consume more.
If you’re somewhere where you’re drinking wine, it’s possible that someone will wish to have a toast. This will cause you to clink your glass with many others. It may surprise you to know that there is an art to clinking glasses so they do not shatter. To avoid this, angle it slightly so that your bells are aligned and that the rim is pointed away from the other person’s glass.
Varietal refers to a single kind of grape in the wine world. Pinot Noir is one such example. In order for a wine to be varietal, it must contain a minimum of 90% of a single varietal juice. Wineries often add an extra ten percent of a different type of grape to make their particular wine unique.
When dining out with friends, do not order wine by the glass. A bottle of wine generally serves approximately six people. You’ll save money this way and will be able to sample a great number of wines.
Let wine breathe before you drink it. You may wish to use a large glass, carafe or a decanter. Pour some wine in the container. Let it sit for around 10 minutes. At that point, sip the sample, then sip from the bottle. There should be a big difference between the two.
Wine is a topic that requires some education to truly enjoy. Implement these tips to avoid a disaster at your next event. Implement what you’ve learned here, and you’ll enjoy your next event.