Have you ever cooked with wine before? Have you ever been in charge of buying the wine for a party? Have you ever wanted to sit there and just enjoy the nicest bottle of wine by yourself on a rainy evening? Consider the following helpful advice when thinking about what wine you are going to buy next.
If you are new to wine tasting, you should know that true connoisseurs actually spit the wine after tasting it. Spitting the wine is the best way to avoid overpowering your taste buds so you can keep tasting other wines. Take a small sip of wine, wait a few seconds to feel all its different flavors and spit it.
You can preserve the taste and aroma of a wine if you store it properly. Any large variance in temperature will alter your wine’s taste. Around 50-55 degrees is the optimum temperature for wine storage. There are refrigerators designed to store wine, or perhaps your basement is cool enough.
Find someone else who enjoys wine. It could be an employee at a store you go to often or an online blogger or critic whose opinion you respect. This individual can help you figure out what to try next, particularly if you are stuck in the rut of simply drinking the same thing over and over again.
The longer you keep the white wine in the fridge, the more the coldness will affect both its smell and taste. Therefore, it is best to only chill wine for several hours prior to serving. This will maximize the taste and enjoyment that you will receive from each bottle you drink.
Consider joining an online wine forum. There are some great ones out there, and they are a wonderful place to interact with others and get ideas on which wines are worth exploring. Before signing up for any forum, search through the boards to ensure it offers you the type of community you are looking for.
If you have a lot of wine in your cellar, you may want to invest in an inventory management system. This will track the types of wine that you have in your cellar and how old they are at a given time. Compartmentalizing wine into a database can make your storage capabilities very efficient.
Although you don’t want to take everything wine experts say as gospel, there is still some benefit in learning from them. The greatest sommeliers are those who are willing to admit biases and mistakes. Besides which, each person’s wine taste is as individual as themselves. So, never rely on expert opinion with regard to a wine in deference to your own taste.
Most people cannot afford a wine cellar in their home, but that does not mean you cannot create an atmosphere that is conducive to storing a few great bottles of wine. Try to store you wine in a darker location where the temperature will remain fairly consistent. Doing this will preserve the quality of your bottles of wine until you are ready to drink them.
Many people think that the only wines that are worth drinking have to cost an arm and a leg. While there are a lot of great wines out there that cost an awful lot of money, there are just as many good tasting wines that are much more moderately priced.
White wines and reds are not the same regarding the temperature they are to be served at. Red wine should usually be warmer than the white wines, generally by approximately 10 or 15 degrees. One way to chill wine that’s white is to put it in the fridge first and after that just let it sit for a couple of minutes. You want the white wine to be served at about 45 degrees Fahrenheit, and the red around 60 degrees.
The body of a wine is a great way to pair it with a dish. The “body” of a wine refers to how substantial the wine is. It often also correlates with the alcohol content, with fuller-bodied wine containing more alcohol than a lighter wine. Heavier dishes should be paired with a full-bodied wine, as a lighter wine runs the risk of tasting watery when paired with something like a hearty steak.
As you may already know, if you have an open bottle of wine, the oxygen can start to diminish the taste. However, if you place the bottle inside of the fridge, the cold can help relieve some of the reaction that air causes. This is a temporary fix and the wine will not last long.
To really get the most of your glass of wine, you will want to sniff it twice. The first time, take a long, slow whiff from right outside of the glass. The second time, take a sniff with your nose inside of the glass. You will see how much better the wine tastes when you do this.
Consider taking a wine history class. Wine is a thing that you can really get into; it is very historical, and people love it. Knowing different types of wine and where they come from helps you with understanding.
If you’re about to drink a very young red wine, a recent vintage, hold the stem of the glass and swirl it around. This lets all the flavors, and aromas come out of the wine while oxygen is introduced to the wine itself. This softens the tannins and makes for a great drink.
Whether you’re cooking, entertaining, collecting, or something else, the information you’ve read here will become useful. If wine is your thing, then you will be energized by this information and looking for more. Keep the advice that has been mentioned here in the forefront of your mind as you search out your next wine.
