How to Improve a Wine's Taste
Wine can be a fickle friend. Sometimes it’s harsh and bitter, other times it’s light, smooth, and flavorful. Bringing out the best in a wine is often up to you to provide the right conditions in order for the wine to thrive. To do this, there are three easy steps you can follow to make your wine really sing.
Start with choosing the right glass for the right wine. Many people have one set of wine glasses that they use with whatever wine they happen to open up that night. Unfortunately, this is not the ideal situation for bringing out the best in an individual wine type. There are actually very specific shapes and sizes of wine glasses that help a wine to express itself fully. Many glass producers, such as Riedel, have perfected the shape and size of a wine glass to the point that you can find a wine glass to match just about every type of wine out there.
A good wine glass is one that directs the wine’s flavors to the correct spots onto the tongue as well as the wine’s aromas into the nose and the back of the throat. You could go crazy and buy a different kind of wine glass for every type of wine you like, but you can also get by with a good set of multi-purpose wine glasses that serve varietals well. As a general rule of thumb, use wine glasses with larger bowls for red wines that have strong aromas and complex flavors. Choose a smaller wine glass with a smaller rim for white wines that are more delicate in nature.
Next, make sure you are serving your wines at the correct temperature. Most people remember to serve red wines warm and white wines chilled, but this isn’t necessarily the correct way to serve every wine. Each wine has a specific temperature that it can thrive by allowing it to open up and release its own unique flavors and aromas. This temperature is determined by the wine’s grape variety and the region it originates from. For instance, a strong and rich red wine like a Bordeaux is best served a couple of degrees below room temperature, whereas a light and fruity red wine like a Beaujolais will express itself better ten degrees or so below room temperature.
On the other hand, white wines really shouldn’t be served ice cold. A good rule of thumb to follow is the 15 minute rule. Strong red wines should be placed in the refrigerator for 15 minutes and fine white wines should be removed from the refrigerator for 15 minutes before serving. If you want to know the best temperatures for each individual wine, you might want to refer to a wine temperature chart.
Finally, let your wine breathe a bit before drinking. Letting a wine breathe or aerate is a perfect way to let many red wines balance their flavors by releasing and softening their bitter tannins. Just removing the cork and letting the bottle sit open is not enough to allow it to breathe properly. A larger surface area of the wine must be allowed to mix with the surrounding air in order for the wine to aerate effectively. To achieve this you can use a wine decanter or any glass container that has a wide opening. You can also pour the wine into a large mouthed glass and swirl it around a bit before drinking.
Knowing how long to aerate a wine so it reaches its full potential is definitely the tricky part. Younger, very tannic red wines may need as many as two hours of aeration, but a full bodied, complex red wine may need only an hour. Wines older than 15 years deteriorate quickly, so these wines need only a few minutes of aeration in order to fully peak.
Remember, treat your wine right and it will be good to you as well. By choosing the right glass, the right temperature, and allowing it to aerate properly, you’ll be able to enjoy each bottle of wine the way it was intended.
