When you receive guests, you may like to treat them to a bottle of fine wine, which you have bought beforehand. This is a good way to show hospitality and your delicate taste. However, before serving wine, it is useful to read some rules, concerning how to do it properly in our wine bottle guide.
A bottle should be bought no later than a day before it is served. Let it stay in a dark, cool place and do not keep it too long in a fridge.
Each sort of wine is said to manifest its best qualities at a certain temperature. White wines are better to be cooled. Nevertheless, it does not mean that they should be frozen; the temperature under 6°C prevents from perceiving all the shades of the wine aroma. The wine is to be put into a wine bottle cooler, half filled with water and ice cubes. When poured into a glass, it becomes warmer by one or two degrees.
White dry wines are recommended to cool to eight degrees C; the best temperature for mature white wines is ten to thirteen degrees C. Pink wines should be fresh and preserve a grape taste and aroma. Therefore, they are usually served at a cellar temperature nine to ten degrees C. The same temperature is good for red light wines. Mature red wines are served at thirteen to fourteen degrees C and well-matured ones at fourteen to sixteen degrees C. The highest possible temperature of eighteen degrees is acceptable only for very old wines.
Another important thing you should learn from this wine bottle guide is how to open wine bottles safely. It must be done very carefully with a corkscrew or a lever wine bottle opener. A bad corkscrew or a wrong technique of opening may spoil the cork or even the bottle-neck. First the top cover is removed with a knife. Then, pull a corkscrew into the cork (not all the way through) and pull it back almost to the end, after that, remove it with your hand. Take care that the corkscrew has even edges so that they might not crumble the cork. Having done this, wipe the inner side of the bottle-neck with a napkin.
To open a bottle of Champaign without unpleasant surprises, hold it at the slope of forty five degrees and start turning the bottle slowly with your hand on the cork. Then, remove the cork carefully.
As a rule, young wines taste better, when they are opened an hour or two before serving. It specially concerns red wines - they can get lighter. What concerns old wines, their contact with air is not so favorable, that is the reason why they are better opened before drinking to preserve their maturity.
If the wine is old, there can be some sediment. To get rid of it, you may like to decanter the wine. Some specialists say that there is no use in this procedure, since the sediment is not an evidence of a bad quality of the wine. Still, some wines tend to improve their taste after it; besides, wines with sediment are not as attractive to our eye as pure wines. This wine bottle guide guide recommends you to decanter old red wines if you do not want to see the sediment in your glass. Decanter wine till the sediment gets to the bottle-neck.
This wine bottle guide provides only some general rules, though dealing with such a delicate drink, you should always rely on your personal taste, based on your own experience. Let it be your principal guide.