“Wine cheers sad, revives old, inspires young and makes weariness forget his toil“, it`s truly said that wine brings smile, pleasure and happiness on everyone`s face and provides respite from daily stressful work. The essence of wine makes it a favorite drink loved by wine enthusiasts from ages.
It has become an indispensable part of everyone`s lifestyle that festives or celebrations seems to be incomplete without it. Since older times, symbolize and define style for accentuating any glorious moment or special occasion, nowadays wine is considered as a drink of sophistication.
A true wine aficionado only knows beauty and elegance of wine that is just more than its taste; serving wine is an art and enjoyable experience that adds grace and beauty to overall celebration. Right type of wine glasses arouse pleasure and makes evening more attractive and delightful.
Wine glasses, as slim and sleek glasses, exemplifies taste and complements the way wine is being served. As wine flows into wine glasses, true look, aroma and flavor of wine is revealed, its color and texture shines, sparkles and enhances personality of wine, thus driving everyone crazy.
In today`s fashionable world, wine glasses are a hot rage and are hitting global markets with heir immense presence, making them quite popular as no other glasses seems to provide same exquisite and refined touch as wine glasses does. It makes drinking more enjoyable and creates a fun and frolic atmosphere.
A perfect blend of style and functionality, wine glasses are crafted in superb shapes and accented with detailed designs and etchings, making them perfect for every special occasion may be birthday party or family gatherings. These are even considered as wonderful gifts for someone special.
A wide assortment of wine glasses in wonderful shapes, sizes, designs and colors are available in market to match needs of every modern user; with so many choices, it becomes quite tricky and one gets mystified in choosing right type of glasses; you can select as per your personal taste and lifestyle.
Only wine lover knows importance of wine glasses; right type of glasses will surely surprise you as it has an extreme effect on flavor of wine and significantly enhances its personality, thus making your experience memorable. The shape and size of wine glasses determines nature and type of wine to be served.
Nearly all glasses are somewhat narrower towards top and wider at base so as to let everyone have pleasure of both its fragrance and taste; material of wine glasses is an important factor to consider, mostly lead and crystal glasses are favorite among wine fanatics to woo and entertain guests.
Different type of glasses range from red wine glasses, white wine glasses to champagne flutes and more that allows one to enjoy exact flavor of wine. Red wine glasses are round in shape with wider bowl; white wine glasses are slightly narrow than red wine glasses and champagne flutes are slim glasses featuring long stem with tapered bowl.
Whatever style you choose, wine glasses provides artistic and aesthetic appeal; offers a sense of satisfaction and happiness that will definitely be treasured for future generations to come. Internet is a great marketplace that lets you search for perfect wine glasses from an amazing collection keeping budget in mind.
Shop online! Online shopping is an excellent and safe way of shopping in comfort of home that saves precious time and money; coupons and promotional codes lets you save good amount of money and free shipping offers allows delivery of product right at your doorsteps. Product reviews and price comparison sites lets you find best deal at affordable prices.
Entertain guests with beautiful wine glasses!
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There’s a lot of talk about wine bottle refrigerators online these days and many people are wondering what the big deal is. Do you really need a special fridge just for your wine? What if you only drink red wine? Isn’t your regular fridge good enough? If you’ve been wondering just what is the point of all this wine fridge talk, then let’s answer some of those questions and get it out there.
Do you really need a wine bottle refrigerator? The answer is no. Not if you aren’t particular about your wine. You see, wine fridges are designed specifically for those who appreciate a good bouquet. Those who can taste the difference in the subtle nuances of a bottle of wine that has been treated well and one that has been agitated too much and exposed to light and vibrations.
Wine refrigerators are for those who cherish wine and care about the presentation. For everyone else, the regular fridge is just fine for shoving your wine into. There’s no reason to worry if you don’t care about slight flavor changes and just want to serve a bottle of wine.
Wine bottle refrigerators are carefully designed and built to avoid vibrations. The cooler has a damper on it to keep things nice and smooth running so the wine won’t be jarred or vibrated, something that can actually change the flavor of the wine and break it down on a minute level. Light also affects the wine and so in a regular fridge, you are going to have an issue with this since it is constantly being opened and exposed to bright light. With a proper cooler, you won’t need to worry about this.
Other reasons a specifically designed fridge is a good idea is that you are essentially mimicking a wine cellar. Since most people don’t have a real wine cellar these days, it’s a good idea to have something that is similar in a smaller size. You might not be able to dig out a cellar in your basement, but a wine fridge can do the trick and keep your wine, red or white at the correct serving temperature and ensure that it is at its best flavor.
Your wine, if it matters to you, should be cared for correctly. For the average person who is only drinking the wine to be posh or get drunk, a wine bottle refrigerator isn’t important and the fridge will do just fine. However, if you want to be sure that your wine is chilled to the correct serving temperature (even red wine should be slightly cooled), then a wine cooler is a good idea.
Are you serious about your wine? Then a could be an excellent idea. Find out more on my wine cooler page and learn which cooler would be best for your situation.
Everybody everywhere craves the taste of a well home brew beer every once in a while. If you drink responsibly, there is nothing wrong with celebrating life while drinking a great beer. The sensation, the way it quenches your thirst on a hot day, the feeling you get when drinking and watching your favorite sports team. Beer appreciation?’s what we love.
In the case of beer, everyone likes something different. There are certain brands we search for in the grocery store, liquor store, or bar. Why? We look for “that” brand because there is just something we like about it. Perhaps it’s the flavor, the texture, or maybe it’s the strength. No matter what it might be, there is something about the wide range of choices when brewing beer at home.
Making beer at home allows you to take control of the creation process. When you buy home brewing supplies in the store, street, or internet, you can create beer with the taste and texture you want. Through much time and work, you can create a beer brew with a certain quality that will have you reaching for a glass time and again.
There are tons of items to choose from when selecting home brew supplies. The fermenting storage utensils and the ingredient mixing tools; this all goes into making the perfect beer that suits your tastes exactly. We are all aware that the right beer plays a large part in making the evening after the work day more relaxing. And, when you drink home brew beer you created, it can make your evening that much better.
Drinking a great home brew beer is comparable to eating a delicious meal you cooked yourself. The feeling of drinking beer you made is indescribable. Now, when you start looking for home brew supplies online, you can spend quite a lot of time searching. But, if you find the right supplies needed for your home brew beer, you will be able to do three things. First, save tons of cash. Second, take your beer brew to a brand new level. And third, have beer the way you want it, when you want it.
No matter what it takes, you should spend the time to search for the right home brew supplies. You will get an awful lot from brewing beer at home in order for you and other people to partake in. The more you practice, the more adept you will become. And, when your friends get a load of your home brew beer, they will want to learn how to make it themselves too. With one sample, they could become willing and eager helpers.
If you’re looking for some more information about then check it out .
Well first off I want to tell you I usually don’t do all this online eBook stuff. I always think of it to be scams and rip offs but my friend convinced me so much to give this one a shot I thought why not. After tasting his beer I wanted to try it out for myself!
The eBook goes into great detail about every aspect of what you need to know. It goes into ingredients, good environments to make beer in and even shows you why usual homemade beer tastes so bad. The secret way to store your beer and stop it from spoiling has been a “beer saver” for me, allowing me to make vast quantities of beer at a time and not worry about having to drink them all before they spoil. The eBook goes into detail about proper storage and drinking responsibly as well.
If you’re sick of going to the pub and paying sometimes up to $8 for a pint then this guide is for you. For very little money you can start making your own beer, in turn saving you money. For mere pennies you’ll have your own brewery in your garage, shed or even your main house.
Like I said at the beginning I was skeptical buying this guide but I am so glad that I did. It taught me everything I needed to know and tells of closely guarded secrets I’d never have even imagined before for getting the best possible taste and colour.
So if there is anyone out there sick of high prices for lager and wishing to start making their own, this is definitely the right guide for you. Whether you want to make a few pints worth a month or a few kegs a month this guide will tell you everything you need to know.
If you’re looking for some more information about then check it out .
You are planning an elegant dinner party, with delicious food and drinks. But you know that two or three of the guests you really want around your table are trying to shed a few pounds.
Can you invite them with a clear conscience – without feeling you are “sabotaging” their dieting efforts? At the same time, can you mix them with guests who are not concerned about their weight?
The answer is a resounding yes – as long as you take five simple steps.
The five steps are all designed to give your diet-conscious guests inviting-looking choices they can enjoy without risking their diet. All of them have the bonus advantage that they are inviting-looking for your non-dieting guests as well.
1. Have a jug of sparkling water available for pre-dinner drinks. Garnish it with a lemon or lime so it looks special, and be sure to serve it in lovely glasses. Your dieting friends will be happy to be drinking their sparkling water while others drink wine.
The trick is in the visuals. The sparkling jug garnished with lemon or lime will look like a “designer drink” so diet-conscious guests don’t feel deprived drinking it.
2. Let the eyes of your dieting guests fall immediately on a safe appetizer choice for them. Position a low fat appetizer front and center of any other appetizer choices.
A beautiful tray of crisp raw vegetables or a tempting shrimp ring fills this bill very nicely. If guests can reach for attractive looking low fat appetizers, they won’t feel so tempted to reach for the more calorie-laden choices.
Now you’ve gotten your guests safely to the table without them breaking their diet resolutions. Keep on offering choices that minimize any sense of deprivation.
3. Choose a main dish that relies on savory herbs for its attraction. Don’t choose a dish that relies on a heavy sauce or gravy.
Steak is a dish that most people can eat happily without loading it with calorie-laden sauces. Roast or grilled chicken is another such choice. A piece of chicken flavored with rosemary or your herbs of choice smells good, looks good and tastes delicious.
Just don’t include a large bowl of stuffing on the side, that’s a highly tempting item most of us would have trouble refusing!
4. Include a pureed squash, sweet potato or turnip dish along with your vegetables and salad. Most green vegetables and salad are no problem for most dieters. Diet-conscious guests can also choose your pureed dishes instead of white potatoes or rice. These dishes fill the plate the same way that potatoes and rice do. And they have the same consistency as fluffy mashed potatoes. (The Atkins diet even recommends pureed cauliflower.) Diet-conscious guests can decline potatoes or rice knowing they will still have filling side dishes.
In other words, your diet-conscious guests don’t need to feel deprived because they still have the volume and texture of mashed potatoes in their vegetable purees.
5. Fresh fruit with chocolate bonbons is a great end to the meal. Your guests can eat the fruit without worrying about calories. And since they have been so diet-conscious throughout the evening, they can treat themselves to a piece or two of chocolate candy.
If you were to offer a chocolate cake they might not be able to resist a piece. But there is a huge difference between a small piece of chocolate candy and a serving of cake and icing. So let them choose just a taste of chocolate instead of tempting them with a large serving.
Now ask yourself – will your diet-conscious guests feel deprived if they are served this kind of menu?
- “Designer” garnished sparkling water to drink with appetizers - Appetizers of fresh vegetable tray and/or shrimp cocktail with lemon garnish - Savory herbed roast chicken or grilled steak - Squash puree - As many vegetable and salad dishes as you wish - Fruit with chocolate bonbons
I think you know the answer. Of course your guests won’t feel deprived.
Far from feeling deprived, your diet-conscious guests will probably heartily enjoy your meal. And they will appreciate your thoughtful provision of diet-conscious but delicious choices that still allow them to stick to their diet resolutions.
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There are many different uses of wine. It is not only for consumption as it is a beverage with significant value and considered sophisticated. Wine is significant to many different cuisines, religions, and it has many different health related benefits.
There are many different wines used for cooking purposes. Many deserts have wine in them, such as the Black Forest Cherry. Many people like to marinade meats in wine before grilling or baking in the oven.
Wine has many religious uses. Because wine induces a mind altering state, the Dionysus used it as a sacramental entheogen. It is an integral part of the Jewish laws, such as Kiddush. This is a blessing which sanctifies the Jewish holiday with wine.
The Christianity religion uses wine also during the Eucharist. The last supper shows Jesus Christ sitting with his disciples drinking a glass of wine and sharing bread. There are many denominations that believe in the Eucharist, including the Roman Catholics and the Protestants.
Islamic law forbids wine. Although Iran used to have a thriving wine industry it was abolished in 1979, due to the Islamic Revolution. Any type of alcohol is strictly forbidden.
There are also many health benefits of wine. Red wine contains a chemical called resveratrol. This chemical has cardio protective and chemo protective effects in studies of animals. Procyanidins are known to have heart benefits and they are most commonly found in red wines. Procyanidins suppress the process in the body that constricts the blood vessels.
Sulphites are contained in all wines due to the fermentation process. Some wines have more than others. Sulphites have been known to cause problems with people who have asthma.
Wine is known to be healthy to drink occasionally. If you drink one glass of wine a day it is considered to be healthy for your heart. Pregnant women are also okay to drink a small glass of wine each day. It is known to be a heart healer and healthy for the body because it provides a relaxing affect on the muscles and the brain.
Excessively drinking wine can lead to problems and cause health issues if it is on a constant basis. It is not advised to drink excessive amounts of wine due to the high alcohol content in most wines.
Scott Wells writes for where you can learn to just in time for the holiday season.
It was 2:30 in the morning at the Wine Library Lounge and the last guests have bid their farewells. Sam sat down on a small corner table to fill out the sales report. With him was a half-empty bottle of 1979 Chateau Fonplegade, a lovely Grand Cru Classe from St. Emilion. This one was from a collector’s series featuring Van Gogh’s “Route aux Cypress” on the label. Earlier in one of the private rooms of the Wine Library Lounge a party of three had polished off three delicious Burgundy 1er Crus from vintages in the 70s. Prudently, they decided to quit after finishing half of the fourth and last for the night. The host was a compellingly elegant woman in a slender red business suit. In a stylish gesture of generosity, she said to Sam. “Please remove the bottle at once before I force my guests to help me finish it.”
Life as a sommelier is full of perks when the guests you serve have the style and the finesse. Sam gets a kick out of serving guests who know how enjoy the game. They get to enjoy the evening so much more than the others.
The Ch. Fonplegade was exactly the kind of company Sam needed after a hard-working evening. Wine guys – sommeliers to students of the old school – are frequently regarded as necessary evils. It is unfortunate but often true that a sommelier is perceived by customers as an obstacle to overcome because they can get what they want.
C’mon, tell me one, please?” She asked with the desperate charm of a whinchat.
Sam’s good side completely dominated the man tonight. “There was this gentleman the other evening. He came in very late with a lovely lady as his date. He opened doors for her, removed her coat and pulled her chair – the works. It’s the game – one of those things that make it fun to be a woman. He did it so well and she was soaking it up. You can see it in her eyes trying to hide her adoration of the man. Then I presented him with the wine menu.” Sam paused for a sip.
“What?” She exploded grabbing his hands with a fierce squeeze. Sam went on to explain.
There aren’t any logical explanations to why some customers feel intimidated about wine. Dining out is a game. Wine makes it more fun to play the game. As a paying customer, you want to get the most out of your money. That should include the full treatment which we don’t get if we don’t learn how to play the game.
Selecting the playground
Ordering the wine
Inspecting a bottle
Giving serving instructions
Tasting and approving the wine
Drinking and conversing
Corkage, tipping and BYO etiquettes
Let’s look into these components one at a time.
The Ch. Fonplegade was exactly the kind of company Sam needed after a hard-working evening. Wine guys – sommeliers to students of the old school – are frequently regarded as necessary evils. It is unfortunate but often true that a sommelier is perceived by customers as an obstacle to overcome because they can get what they want.
An eager young waitress sat down timidly in front of Sam. Ordinarily she and her little dimple on her left cheek would have been woofed away. Tonight, she even got a small glass of the wine. She took that as a cue for permission to speak.
“Sam, you’ve been a wine guy for a number of years. I’m sure you have some stories cellared in that wisdom chest inside your head. C’mon, tell me one, please?” She asked with the desperate charm of a whinchat.
Sam’s good side completely dominated the man tonight. “There was this gentleman the other evening. He came in very late with a lovely lady as his date. He opened doors for her, removed her coat and pulled her chair – the works. It’s the game – one of those things that make it fun to be a woman. He did it so well and she was soaking it up. You can see it in her eyes trying to hide her adoration of the man. Then I presented him with the wine menu.” Sam paused for a sip.
“Our suave Cary Grant froze into a bronze statue. He just sat there forever staring at the menu without so much as a word or a hint that he was still breathing. Now what could cause someone like that to stop dead on his tracks?” Sam paused and looked into those big young shinny eyes.
“What?” She exploded grabbing his hands with a fierce squeeze. Sam went on to explain.
There aren’t any logical explanations to why some customers feel intimidated about wine. Dining out is a game. Wine makes it more fun to play the game. As a paying customer, you want to get the most out of your money. That should include the full treatment which we don’t get if we don’t learn how to play the game.
Learning the game is a lot simpler than most beginners might think. But let’s get one hang-up out of the way right now. You don’t need to learn French. Whew! And this game is definitely easier than singing or dancing. Every component of a little game is an opportunity for the player to have fun. Once you know the game, they won’t be obstacles anymore.
Selecting the playground
Ordering the wine
Inspecting a bottle
Giving serving instructions
Tasting and approving the wine
Drinking and conversing
Corkage, tipping and BYO etiquettes
Let’s look into these components one at a time.
Selecting the playground
Divers and skiers are just as zealous when it comes to choosing a venue to satisfy their thirst for thrills and discoveries.
Wine enthusiasts shouldn’t settle for anything less either. The fun and thrill of dining out is to experience something that we don’t get at home. If the wines served in a restaurant are stuff that you find in the neighborhood wine store, you have probably picked the wrong restaurant. Good food can take you half way there at best.
A good restaurant always offers wines that are not readily available on retail. They do so by investing in and maintaining a cellar to collect and age many bottles of the wine.
Reading the restaurant’s wine menu may not be as engaging as reading Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, but it shouldn’t feel like re-reading The Goblet of Fire (book 4 for those who is one generation behind) for the 18th time. A great restaurant is obliged to offer a wine selection so wide and deep that it will keep you intrigued for endless return visits.
Word of Advice
Make an extra effort when choosing a dining venue. Not all are tuned in to the wine culture. Call up ahead to ask. If you stumble into a wrong one, don’t be shy to walk out. There are better places for you to spend your money.
Ordering your wine
Reading, for many of us is a pleasure best savored in privacy. Reading a wine menu is a pleasure to wine lovers. Poorly trained wine staff tends to crowd the scene with unwanted attention and worse, importunate suggestions.
Feel free to firmly fend off the “Would you like red or white?” and the “We have wine by the glass also.” A simple “Please check back in 10 minutes” would do nicely. Occasionally, that doesn’t work. Then it calls for a “Please bring me some water chilled to 15 degrees. Then add a twist of lime without the peel.” This will buy you 10 minutes of private reading pleasure, I hope.
Many restaurants are pressured by wine merchants to sell their wine. That’s why we often get these lines from even the bus boys: “We highly recommend this great Cabernet Sauvignon from Chile” or “This Napa Valley Zinfandel is the most popular wine in town today.”
It is perfectly acceptable to ask questions about any wine on the menu, as long as your line of questioning leads to the deliverance of a verdict in the foreseeable future.
Advice to the prudent
Spend 5 minutes to browse the wine menu and get a general feel for what kinds of wines the venue has to offer. Then turn to the food menu and decide what you will eat. After that, let the sommelier return to discuss wine and food pairing before ordering your wine.
Inspecting a Bottle
The process of inspecting a bottle of wine serves an indispensable purpose – to allow the customer one last chance to change his mind before the restaurant puts the wine on the bill.
The procedure is simple and quite standard.
Wine waiter: presents you with a bottle of the wine that you ordered, showing you the label with a few words, not of praises, but of the pertinent details of the wine. The words are to assert that the wine is indeed the one that you ordered.
Guest: examines the details of the wine mainly for purpose of authentication. Things to look for are (1) name of the wine, (2) name of the producer/shipper in the case of wines from Burgundy and Rhone for example, and (3) vintage year. You only have to nod your head to signify your approval, not of the wine but of the bottle only.
Wine waiter: thanks you for your acceptance and asks you for permission to uncork the wine.
There. No pain at all. More to follow so please read on.
Advice to the novice
Giving Serving Instructions
This paragraph is optional. Those readers taking the beginners’ course are welcome to jump to the next section.
Are you still here? Welcome.
Selecting a wine is just half of the ordering process. Most people give up their basic rights of ordering the way they prefer their wine to be prepared and served. Leaving it up to the sommelier is acceptable if you know them well. Otherwise, go the extra yard and give specific instructions.
Here are the fundamental parameters to wine preparation and services on which you can base your instructions.
Temperature at which you want the wine to be served
Do you wish the wine to be kept in an ice bucket or a wine cooler?
Decant, double decant or serve straight from the bottle
Types of wine glasses you prefer
Sequence of services when you order more than one bottle
Help yourself or let the waiter do the pouring
How much wine (e.g. less than half full) to pour into your glass
Any decent restaurant will be wiling and able to accommodate requests within those parameters. If you are unlucky meet with stiff resistance on this front, it will only be poetic justice for you to walk out or at least, reject the wine. Why should you pay for inadequate facilities and a complacent service attitude?
Advice to the discerning wine lover
Do not assume that your instructions are followed. More often than not they are not. Don’t be shy to complain or even threaten to reject the wine if your instructions are not followed.
Selecting the playground
Golfers travel around the world just to play courses that catch their fancy. Divers and skiers are just as zealous when it comes to choosing a venue to satisfy their thirst for thrills and discoveries.
Wine enthusiasts shouldn’t settle for anything less either. The fun and thrill of dining out is to experience something that we don’t get at home. If the wines served in a restaurant are stuff that you find in the neighborhood wine store, you have probably picked the wrong restaurant. Good food can take you half way there at best.
A good restaurant always offers wines that are not readily available on retail. They do so by investing in and maintaining a cellar to collect and age many bottles of the wine.
Reading the restaurant’s wine menu may not be as engaging as reading Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, but it shouldn’t feel like re-reading The Goblet of Fire (book 4 for those who is one generation behind) for the 18th time. A great restaurant is obliged to offer a wine selection so wide and deep that it will keep you intrigued for endless return visits.
Word of Advice
Make an extra effort when choosing a dining venue. Not all are tuned in to the wine culture. Call up ahead to ask. If you stumble into a wrong one, don’t be shy to walk out. There are better places for you to spend your money.
Ordering your wine
Reading, for many of us is a pleasure best savored in privacy. Reading a wine menu is a pleasure to wine lovers. Poorly trained wine staff tends to crowd the scene with unwanted attention and worse, importunate suggestions.
Feel free to firmly fend off the “Would you like red or white?” and the “We have wine by the glass also.” A simple “Please check back in 10 minutes” would do nicely. Occasionally, that doesn’t work. Then it calls for a “Please bring me some water chilled to 15 degrees. Then add a twist of lime without the peel.” This will buy you 10 minutes of private reading pleasure, I hope.
Many restaurants are pressured by wine merchants to sell their wine. That’s why we often get these lines from even the bus boys: “We highly recommend this great Cabernet Sauvignon from Chile” or “This Napa Valley Zinfandel is the most popular wine in town today.”
It is perfectly acceptable to ask questions about any wine on the menu, as long as your line of questioning leads to the deliverance of a verdict in the foreseeable future.
Advice to the prudent
Spend 5 minutes to browse the wine menu and get a general feel for what kinds of wines the venue has to offer. Then turn to the food menu and decide what you will eat. After that, let the sommelier return to discuss wine and food pairing before ordering your wine.
Inspecting a Bottle
The process of inspecting a bottle of wine serves an indispensable purpose – to allow the customer one last chance to change his mind before the restaurant puts the wine on the bill.
The procedure is simple and quite standard.
Wine waiter: presents you with a bottle of the wine that you ordered, showing you the label with a few words, not of praises, but of the pertinent details of the wine. The words are to assert that the wine is indeed the one that you ordered.
Guest: examines the details of the wine mainly for purpose of authentication. Things to look for are (1) name of the wine, (2) name of the producer/shipper in the case of wines from Burgundy and Rhone for example, and (3) vintage year. You only have to nod your head to signify your approval, not of the wine but of the bottle only.
Wine waiter: thanks you for your acceptance and asks you for permission to uncork the wine.
There. No pain at all. More to follow so please read on.
Advice to the novice
More frequently than we might think, waiters fail to bring you exactly the wine you ordered. Ask for the wine list when the bottle is presented. Compare what you see on the label to the data on the wine list to make sure what you see is indeed what you have ordered.
Giving Serving Instructions
This paragraph is optional. Those readers taking the beginners’ course are welcome to jump to the next section.
Are you still here? Welcome.
Selecting a wine is just half of the ordering process. Most people give up their basic rights of ordering the way they prefer their wine to be prepared and served. Leaving it up to the sommelier is acceptable if you know them well. Otherwise, go the extra yard and give specific instructions.
Here are the fundamental parameters to wine preparation and services on which you can base your instructions.
Temperature at which you want the wine to be served
Do you wish the wine to be kept in an ice bucket or a wine cooler?
Decant, double decant or serve straight from the bottle
Types of wine glasses you prefer
Sequence of services when you order more than one bottle
Help yourself or let the waiter do the pouring
How much wine (e.g. less than half full) to pour into your glass
Any decent restaurant will be wiling and able to accommodate requests within those parameters. If you are unlucky meet with stiff resistance on this front, it will only be poetic justice for you to walk out or at least, reject the wine. Why should you pay for inadequate facilities and a complacent service attitude?
Advice to the discerning wine lover
Do not assume that your instructions are followed. More often than not they are not. Don’t be shy to complain or even threaten to reject the wine if your instructions are not followed.
Tasting and approving the wine
Armed with your permission, the sommelier will proceed to uncork your bottle of wine. This should be performed in your presence as a rule. It shows that the bottle you approved is the same one that is being opened.
You are then given the right to taste and then decide to approve or reject the wine. Here is the protocol.
Wine waiter: asks for permission to uncork the wine. He opens the bottle (see Giving Serving Instructions) and sets the cork down in front of you.
Guest: Examine the cork or simply wave the waiter to pour the wine. Some corks have a stamp of the wine’s name on it. This will make it easier to authenticate the wine. Most of us just skip this step but there are those who like to pick up the cork and smell it. Don’t.
Wine waiter: pours a little bit – about 1/10 of your glass – for your tasting.
Guest: examine the color, twirls the glass a bit and drinks the wine. Now come crunch time. You make the all important decision – to accept or to reject. Let’s say you accept. A nod would do.
Wine waiter: thanks you and asks you if he may be allowed to serve now or let the wine breathe for a while first.
Guest: if you want it to be served, indicate to whom the wine should be served first, usually the guest of honor – your date, not the hunk seated at the adjacent table!
Wine will then be served as per your serving instructions. In the absence of specific instructions, house rules prevail. That’s pot luck. It’s not too late to double back to the previous section on Giving Service Instructions now.
Under what circumstances can a guest reject a bottle of wine?
Bottom-line is you can say “take it away” if the wine is bad. This means one of the following conditions applies:
. Wine is in poor health – disgusting odor, color completely faded
. Wine tastes like vinegar – wine is oxidized
. Wine is a fake – not the kind you ordered.
You cannot reject a wine just because you don’t like it.
Drinking and Conversing
Drinking is a rather personal thing. Some like to drink in large gulps between long intervals. Others like to take tiny sips incessantly. I know many who get the best of both worlds – large gulps in hardly detectable intervals.
Myths surrounding drinking are plenty and free. Bash them. Smoking is one of those. Unless you are paid in high six figures for tasting wines as a profession, you puff away while consuming a simple New World merlot. Food and wine pairing, on the other hand is serious business and should not be brushed off quite so quickly. A wrong decision here can mean the difference between lust and disgust.
An integral part of wine appreciation is talking about the wine. Sharing opinions and impressions about the stuff you drink is more than acceptable. It is expected and notoriously fun.
Feel free to step into the shoes of a Robert Parker and plagiarize about body, concentration, extract, length and depth if you are in that mood. Be more illusive if you like and whip up a soufflé of obscurities with words like character, distinction and finesse. You can even stretch the imagination with phrases like “a gallantly pathetic effort”. But would you go so far as one woman did? “This wine attacks the palate like a gust of cold ocean breeze against a freshly shaven leg”.
It is perfectly acceptable and indeed a chic gesture to beckon the sommelier for an earful of your comments. I have served wine in more than one occasion and I tell you that nothing gave me more pleasure than to listen to the comments of the guests. The efforts made to articulate their ecstasies were most flattering. Of course, I am a much better listener when offered a glass of the wine that caused all that excitement in the first place.
I remember one time when I was confronted by an attractive lady with a direct question. “Denny, what are the qualities of a good wine?” I could have answered that in two dozen ways involving a balanced mixture of bad poetry and overused jargons. Instead, what came out of my mouth was a mere “Big and long”. So much for poetry but that answer was exactly what was pictured in my mind.
Advice to the timid
Don’t hold back. This is the time for the poet in you to surface. Nothing you say can possibly be wrong, as long as you don’t break the golden rule – don’t short change yourself with anything not original. You are the only connoisseur that matters.
Corkage, Tipping and BYO etiquettes
We’ve all been held hostage by a custom called “corkage” which of course means that restaurant has the right to charge you a fee for bringing in your own drinks (can also apply to food). Is it fair? Certainly, but only as long as it is a consistent policy and the restaurant has a wine collection robust enough to satisfy our appetites for discoveries. Otherwise, they should quietly put up with bottles marching through their doors.
But let’s look at it from another angle. If we dine out, why burden ourselves with unnecessary chores like bringing a bottle of wine? Isn’t it more rewarding to hold the hand of your date rather than the neck of a cold hard bottle of Vega Sicilia?
BYO (Bring Your Own) etiquettes start and end with one basic rule. If you have to bring wine into a restaurant, the bottle should be in one or two classes above those that the restaurant has to offer. Don’t even think about bringing something that is readily available in retail shops. Putting it in another way, your BYO wine should be something that would cause the sommelier to misbehave all evening long hoping to get a sip of your wine.
Tipping is a matter of style and character. It transcends the basic obligation of rewarding the serving staff. It touches on the realm of a self-expression of satisfaction, a sigh of relief that the best has just transpired.
When in doubt tip profusely. When you do that, don’t forget to let the establishment hear all your constructive complaints. Nothing beats two-way communications even in a one-night relationship like this.
Advice to the frequent diners
Dining out is a just another form of shopping. First rule of shopping – when in doubt, ask, ask and ask again. One thing you shouldn’t do is to take a chance on anything that might ruin your evening. The average person has less than 50 memorable evenings in a year. Sadly more than half of them will turn out to be false alarms. A few great evenings will make it into your hall of fame. This might be one of them.
So there you have it.
Wine appreciation is much, much more than satisfying our cravings for good fermented grape juice. The interactions with the wait staff, the painful struggle to decide what to order for the night, the stories of mistakes and the occasional rare finds to share with wine friends are all part of the wine lifestyle.
We make an effort to learn the game not because we play to win. There are no scores in this game and there are no winners or losers. But beware. Don’t get to be too good at it. You might just wake up one day and find yourself with a new hobby for life.
Sam finishes his 79 Ch. Fonplegade. Big eyed waitress with a tiny dimple gets the empty bottle with a Van Gogh label to decorate her apartment. Another day in the life of a sommelier fades away. In the background, the song echoes “There before the grace of you, go I.”
Comments and questions can be sent directly to the author at this email address Wine@Yats-International.com.
Wine does not only come with accessories. It comes, more importantly, with food. A drinking party will not be complete without food. Or, to correct the sentence, a drinking party will not be complete without pairing it with the right food. Without the food fit for your drink, the party will surely be ruined because the visitors will not be able to enjoy the drink. So, try to know the secrets in correct wine and food pairing.
• Foods that are rich in spices require full-flavored wines. • High-acid wines are better paired with acidic foods. • The key in wine and food matching is balance. Do not allow the taste of one overpowers the taste of another. Foods rich in texture match rich and full-bodied wines. • Red wines are a great match to pasta with red sauce, and red meats. • Because garlic and vinegar, and other overpowering spices do not go with any wine, make sure that the foods you will serve are not too intense with these components. • Those pasta and seafood with cream sauce should not be paired with red wines. • Adding salt to food is useful in softening the bitterness and sharp taste of some wines. • Foods that are sour and with a great amount of acidity, when paired with wine, will not taste as such; but, will rather have rich flavor. • Foods that are sweet, when matched with wine, will taste bitter. This goes also with flavorful foods. • Spicy food will produce exaggerated bitterness in wine. But, adding salty or sourness to the food will counter this result. • Foods that are bitter will decrease the wine’s sweetness; it will also enable the wine to become more alcoholic. • Savory food will improve the sweetness of the wine. • Asparagus is a vegetable that is known to have a very strong flavor; thus, ‘killing’ the taste of the wine. So, do not attempt to serve food with this vegetable or else, your wine will be nothing. But, if you still insist, steam then grill the asparagus; thereby, reducing the grassy taste. • Salad with vinaigrette dressing dulls the flavor of the wine. • The higher the alcohol content of the wine, the higher the possibility of decreasing the palatability of the food. • If you have old wines, do not match it with foods that have delicate flavors. • Desserts that are sweet must be less sweet than the wine. • To make sure of a happy drink, if you have more than kind of wine, you ought to have more than one meal.
Your food and wine should match. It is not enough that you have both. You have to be sure that when these foods and wines are served, they satisfy the taste buds of the people attending your party. This way, you will be able to bid good bye to visitors that have happy faces because they enjoy both your food and your wine.
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A “connoisseur” – according to Oxford – is an “expert judge in matter of taste”. For sure you know what you like and dislike, so already that makes you a judge. As for being an expert, you have “to have special knowledge of or skill in a subject”. OK, this might require a bit of work but I can assure you it is much easier than most connoisseurs would have you believe.
Realize first that the key to being an expert in wine is to know precisely what aspects to look for in any bottle you uncork. The average novice has a vague idea at best. Consequently, despite the fact that both persons have the same discerning abilities, no matter how much wine the novice drinks, it won’t improve his ability to judge properly.
So what we will do here is to spell out in plain English the basic but quintessential virtues that make for a good bottle of wine. I think this will help you evaluate every glass of wine and form an expert opinion with ease. I am going to take you through just three fundamental areas of appreciation, namely Typicity, Quality and Age-worthiness. Mastering them is all that stands between you – a wine novice – and you – a wine connoisseur.
Style and Typicity
The style of wine from Bordeaux will and should be different from Napa Valley or Chile, otherwise wine would be a terribly boring hobby. No one style rules supreme in the wine domain. Typicity which describes how accurate the rendition of the style that the wine is supposed to manifest, is very important quality.
An average wine connoisseur is familiar with about 30 styles of wine. It doesn’t take long for a novice to achieve that. All you need to do is to taste a lot. Your palates have excellent memory even if your mind struggles to find more Giga bytes to store a lot of facts and figures. Very soon, when you open a bottle of Brunello di Montalcino, all your senses will automatically receive a download of tasting expectations. And even if the wine tastes very good it would be a disappointment if it doesn’t reflect the quality of its roots. So questions like “Are Australian wines better than French?” are really missing the point.
Quality
With the topic of style down pat, we can take a look at quality of taste. It is actually quite easy. I just need your mind to zoom in on five key areas. Your senses will then render an expert opinion on whether the stuff is good, bad or ugly. The five areas are:
Consistency
Intensity
Vigor
Balance
Finish
Consistency is about tactile qualities that leave a rewarding palate impression, not about flavors. Wine writers like to use the term Body to describe the weight of a wine. Full-, medium- and light-body describe how heavy and light a wine feels on the tongue. But size isn’t everything so in addition to body, we’re also looking for texture of smoothness and silkiness. The great Burgundy wine of Chambertin is well known for its remarkable combination of a full body and a velvety texture.
The flavors of a wine might come in low, medium or high intensity, much like the volume of music played on a stereo. Great wine comes with an appropriate level of intensity just high enough to capture your undivided attention yet not excessively so as to drown out everything else. It is such deft touch that separates the great Australian wine – Grange (Hermitage) – from many expensive baubles out of the same region.
Vigor comes from acidity without which the wine would taste dull and flat if not downright boring. Great chefs often squeeze a splash of lemon juice to finish off a dish. The presence of the same kind of fresh acidity adds crispiness to a wine making it taste racy with a bit of welcomed levity. The great Italian Barolo from Piedmont are endowed with this quality and so are some of the lovely Sauvignon Blanc white wines from New Zealand.
Balance is the quintessential quality of a great wine. A wine is out of balance if one component sticks out like a sore thumb. Most frequently encountered flaws that throw a wine out of balance are excessively high alcohol which makes the wine taste overly dry and astringent (“hot” in wine jargon) and in white wines especially Chardonnays, excessively woody (“oaky” in wine jargon) and buttery which effaces the fruit flavors in the wine. The great Château Lafite-Rothschild is benchmark for balance par excellence.
The word “finish” refers to the length and quality of the aftertaste. In a long finish, flavors linger on for nearly a minute. But length isn’t everything if the aftertaste fails to maintain its balance. Some long finishes fall apart giving way to a distinctly sour or bitter impression. Length doesn’t always bring satisfaction.
Age-worthiness
To achieve greatness a wine must first undergo the arduous challenge of time. Most wines are not made with greatness in mind. For them, time is an insidious revelation of their mediocrity. For the best of breeds, age imbues in them depth and complexity of flavors. That distinguishes the wine from the merely good. Knowing this, fastidious connoisseurs relentlessly scour the town for old vintages pricey as some old bottles could (and should) be. Novices on the other hand go for brand names and sometimes settle for wines that are far too young to drink, rarely getting their money’s worth. After all, it is the ability of wine to improve with age that positions it above all the other beverages.
By now, you have endued yourself with more than enough knowledge to be your own expert judge on every bottle you drink. If you feel lacking a bit in exposure and experience, then just drink and drink and drink some more. But drinking the same stuff over and over again won’t help. Best advice is for you to refrain from ordering the same wine night in and night out. Your time is best spent with a new fancy every evening. Promiscuity is inextricably married to connoisseurship. Even if you can’t divorce yourself from the “usual” at least be adventurous with different vintages of the same wine. Every year produces a different version of the same wine. This too is part of the myriad of fascinations that the world of wine has to offer.
Whether you are an assiduous restaurateur, a gregarious hobbyist or just a raver with a penchant for the finer things, wine is certainly an affair worth pursuing. This is one relationship which allows you to define all the rules. It can be a languid sidekick or you can take it seriously with a lot of respect and understanding. Ultimately it probably won’t love you back and it certainly won’t stop demanding more of your time, attention and alas, money. If this sounds like a raw deal, then perhaps this is one affair you should sidestep.
But imagine if that’s not a problem for you, what else in life can offer an reward so prodigious as something different and exciting to look forward to every single night?
Tim Drake is resident wine journalist in Asia, contributing to magazines and broadsheet in wine and the lifestyle that this beverage has created for the modern world.
Vintage wines are made from grapes grown in a certain year and they are labeled as such. Many countries allow a little part of the grape quantity for vintage wine to not be from the labeled year, but not more than five percent, for example, in the United States. There is a special wine which is made only from grapes of a declared vintage year, also known as Port wine. This unique wine is a Portuguese wine and is fortified with distilled grapes spirits (similar to Brandy) to halt the fermentation and keep the rest of sugar in wine. This is the reason why vintage ports are much sweeter than other wines and the content of alcohol is higher, either 19.5% or 20%.
Vintage port is usually served after meals, like dessert wine and it is often consumed with cheese and even chocolate. Typically, it is a sweet red wine, but there can be also dry, semi-dry and white varieties. Vintage ports account usually for about two percent of the total port production in one year and they are not declared in every year as vintage wines, but more like a few in a decade. In the European Union, only the wine which is produced in Portugal is labeled as Port wine. This is why Port houses are aware of the importance to keep their reputation and they are very strict in declaring a wine as vintage port. In United States, vintage wines are labeled under Port, if the grapes from which the wine is made have their origins in Portugal.
After the vintage port is produced and fortified with aguardente (distilled grape spirits), it is stored and aged in barrels, which are kept in cellars. The period of ageing is approximately of two and a half years. Only after this time vintage ports are bottled, but for having the right age for drinking, the wine must stay another ten to thirty years to age in bottles. Really fine vintage port can keep gaining complexity for many years after it was bottled. This is the reason why these types of wines can only be found in expensive cellars.
Vintage wines bearing the port label are extremely valuable and with pretty high prices for the bottles that are older. Being much sweeter, richer and much heavier than most wines, port wine is considered by the experts a little treasure in their cellars and it may be a great gift for them, coming from a friend. People love to taste a glass of good wine, but if they would let all their senses to feel the whole experience, the result will be even more blissful.
Vintage ports are so special for wine experts. However, if the year is not so good, there will be no declarations of vintage port wines in that year. Being not that many in one decade, collectors of wines are passionate about this kind of fine wine. There are just very few types of wines that can be served only like a dessert and port wine is one of that.
are our number one specialty and we hope that you will take your time discovering everything we have got to offer. Use our website as the expert resource that it truly is and go through all the available vintage ports until you find the ones that satisfy your personal preferences the most. A is a great thing to have and we are well aware of this fact, offering an incredible selection for authentic wine experts and not only!