| Basic Wine Tasting |
| Step 1) First, get a wine glass. Although the expert French might recommend that 4 different sizes of wine glasses are indispensable to appreciate wine, for normal drinkers like us, a normal wine glass that is clear and see through is more than enough. Why do you need a wine glass and not any cup or transparent glass? This is because of its several unique features. 1) Firstly, the rim of the wine glass has a smaller circumference than its body. This enables it to trap the aromas of the wine in the glass and ready for its smelling directly after poured. 2) Secondly, the glass of the wine glass is relatively thin and see through. Hence one can appreciate the rich color of the wine before drinking. If you got big bucks, experts recommend getting a crystal wine glass which is perfect for its clarity. 3) Thirdly, the wine glass has a thin stalk at the bottom for you to hold on to. This is because wine is good when served chilled (about 18 or lower degrees) and the temperature of your hand might temper with its quality after handling. (Some experts feel that drinking non-chilled wines brings out their full flavors better. It is up to you whether you want them to be chilled or not) Nevertheless always handle the wine glass with its stalk if you chill your wine, so as to prevent change in quality due to changes in temperature. Step 2) Buy a bottle of red wine. Just go to NTUC or Cold Storage and select any red wine lah! Buy a cheap one will do and don�t bother buying expensive ones for a start. Any wine below $30 will be fine. I will explain more about this topic in Myths and Misunderstandings of Wine later. Step 3) Open the bottle of wine with a corkscrew. Haha... this might seem easy enough isn�t it? But this is not necessarily so! Firstly, to open the bottle, you got to have a corkscrew in your house. It may come as a surprise that after buying a bottle, you are frustrated that you can�t open it with this tool at hand!! Secondly, buy a quality corkscrew. Trust me, I have bought a corkscrew for $1 plus from a cheap shop and it broke halfway while I was opening a bottle!! Imagine I have to use heavy tools to dig out the cork and it actually dropped into the wine to spoil my mood!! You won't want to repeat my experience� so get a good one. A $4 plus corkscrew made of stainless steel would do fine. Step 4) After getting the cork out, turn it around and pop your cork back (if its not too spoilt). Chill the wine in the refrigerator. Or if you want to drink right away, pour some into your wine glass and leave it in your fridge for a short while (cover it up if you want to retain its aroma). Drink it ASAP once its chilled. You can also chill the bottle first before you open for drinking -- just make sure it doesn�t get too messy when you open the slippery bottle with the corkscrew. Retention of the cork is important because you can pop it back again to save your wine (I always save some for later drinking). By keeping the cork on the bottle, you are slowing down its oxidation process and enable the wine to last for at least a couple of weeks. Drink your wine ASAP after you have opened it because it will deteriorate and become vinegar very soon!! You won't want that to happen, do you? |