| | | | Wine Lover Basics at KitchenEssentials.com | | If you enjoy nothing more than sharing a bottle of wine with a few close friends, expand your collection of stemware and other must-haves for wine lovers. The size and shape of a wine glass is important, designed for specific wines to enhance taste and aroma. These characteristics also enable the wine to hit the part of the mouth where the varietal is best enjoyed.
Begin your collection with a basic white wine glass, appropriate for chardonnay, pinot grigio and other white varitals. The majority of red wines are meant to be consumed at room temperature, which is why red wine glasses feature a wider bowl than white wine stemware. The wide bowl allows the wine to cool quickly following hand contact while also opening up the complex bouquet found in red wine. Merlots and Cabernets are typically drank in Bordeaux glasses. The Bordeaux design is tall, crafted this way to guide the full-bodied reds to the back of the mouth. Shorter, but with a larger bowl, is the Burgundy glass, designed for more delicate wines (i.e., Pinot Noir, et al) where the flavor should burst upon the tip of the tongue.
Wine glasses can be specific to the type of wine, but beginning your collection with Bordeaux glasses, Burgundy glasses, white wine glasses and champagne glasses is a good place to start. As you continue to expand your education and love of wine, add other specialized stemware such as Shiraz glasses and white burgundy glasses, for example.
Today's wine glasses are not limited to stemware. If you prefer a more modern look, stemless wine glasses or stemless wine tumblers do not detract from the enjoyment of a particular wine. You can swirl and taste just as you would with classic stemware. Once you start accruing several different sets of wine glasses, it is probably best to invest in a glassware rack or stemware rack to store these glasses in your mini-bar or kitchen.
If you're going to enjoy a bottle of wine, it's safe to say you're going to need a proper wine opener. A butterfly corkscrew is preferred by some to a wine key, because it is easier to correctly open the wine bottle. A wine key is smaller and more slender, and is used while one hand opens turns the corkscrew and the other hand holds the bottle. This sometimes requires practice for the novice wine lover. Both wine keys and corkscrews typically feature handy bottle openers, which can be used for beer and other beverages. There are also electric wine openers which also include foil cutters. There are also individual foil cutters which can be bought. While not a necessary item, especially if you use a wine key, they can be helpful, especially when serving champagne.
As you begin a collection of your favorite vintages, a wine refrigerator, wine cage, or wine rack is an absolute necessity. Wine is best stored laying on its side rather than upright. A wine refrigerator also gives you the opportunity to store your wine at an appropriate temperature to best preserve its flavorful characteristics and bouquet.
A decanter is a must for aerating full-bodied reds which contain sediment. Sediment can be left as part of the winemaking process, as many varieties are not completely filtered as to preserve the desired taste after bottling. Sediment can also accumulate as a wine ages. Pouring these wines into a glass decanter aerates wines with high tannins, allowing them "to breathe." Examples of wines with high tannins are Bordeaux, Cabernet Sauvignon, Port, Rhone, and Barolo wines. If you make a habit of serving only a partial bottle of wine, you may want to purchase a carafe. Another great accessory is the wine funnel. Wine funnels are useful in transferring the wine from the bottle to the carafe or decanter. There is also an aesthetic value in using a decanter or carafe, as many are designed as an elegant companion to wine glass sets.
When serving white wines or rose wines which are typically chilled, you may want a wine cooler to keep the wine at a proper temperature while serving it. Some of these are made of stone or marble, while there are also insulated wine coolers which keep the wine at a suitable temperature for a bit longer or if you're on your way to a party, for instance. There are also champagne coolers designed especially for keeping the bubbly properly chilled. Most basic wine chillers can easily fit on your table while dining. Drinking a bottle of red? Place it upon a wine coaster or in a wine caddy to protect your table and provide and extra, decorative touch.
Saving the rest of that bottle for later? In order to preserve the wine, you need to do more than just re-cork. To best keep the taste, you will need to remove as much air as possible from the bottle to reduce continued aeration until the next time you "re-open" the bottle. To do this, invest in a wine pump and bottle stoppers (there are also specially-designed champagne stoppers), or a wine sealer, wine preserver, or wine saver. There are many names for similar products, but they are all meant to keep wine drinkable after 24–48 hours after opening.
As your taste for wine grows and develops, expand your bottle collection and stemware assortment with books, magazines and other wine lover musts. Wine is known to become more than a beverage and more like a hobby. Perhaps you will find yourself making your own wine, or venturing to some of the most prolific wine regions of the world, as wine tasting and vineyard tours can add an incredible experience to many travel destinations.
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