How to serve your wine

Let’s start with the sommelier’s tools and let’s begin with those not commonly known: the wine basket. This basket is used for particularly aged wine and is used to transport the bottle, which was placed horizontally in the cellar, to the table. By so doing, this avoids brusque movements and allows the sediments, which have formed at the bottom of the bottle to remain as they were. It is available in various materials, steel, wicker, silver ... and also have various costs. Chose the basket that you like most, just as long as it’s practical. If you don’t drink particularly aged wine (or if you have a very steady hand!) then you can surely avoid purchasing one. Another instrument, which isn’t very indispensable, is the decanter. It’s a round shaped glass pitcher that is used to “decant” in other words to pour the wine from the bottle to the pitcher in order to let it breathe and leaving any residue in the bottle. It may come in various forms according to the wine to be decanted, either in glass or crystal, printed or blown glass. The choice is fairly personal and also according to how much one is willing to spend. How to use a decanter? The wine must be poured in the decanter very slowly by leaning the bottle in the decanter. A candle flame may help see the arrival of any sediment and know when to stop pouring. When to use a decanter? Let’s start by saying that white wines generally must not be decanted (even if some use it for particularly complex white wines) Young red wines must also not be decanted. However red wines with a certain structure and aged at a certain point can often benefit from this operation. This rule is not applied for very old red wines, where even the minimum movement can compromise the wine’s balance. If you want my advice, at times, the function of the decanter is more scenic rather than effective ... but it is one of the rituals of wine serving and therefore must be respected! An indispensable instrument is the corkscrew. It comes in all shapes and materials, as well as prices. I recommend the classical sommelier corkscrew with the lever. It must be robust and possibly with two leaning points for the lever so as to facilitate the extraction of the cork. How is it used? With the incorporated cutter in the corkscrew, cut the cap at at least 2 cm under the bottle’s neck and by so doing expose the neck completely. When you insert the worm (the worm is the spiral tip of the corkscrew) avoid penetrating all the way through the cork. Withdraw the cork delicately and if necessary clean the extremity of the bottle of any leftover residue with a napkin. Obviously the corkscrew is not used for sparkiling wines like spumante. In this case adequate champagne tweezers is more suitable ... even if a simple nutcracker can substitute it without weighting heavily on ones budget! When opening spumante try to avoid the burst, it’s very exciting but it also ruins the perlage! In the end let’s discuss the glasses ... and here the choice is very important. If you don’t believe it, try drinking a Sassicaia in a plastic cup and then in a degustation glass; it’s like drinking a different wine! Therefore don’t save on the cost of the glasses. They absolutely must be transparent, if possible smooth crystal glasses (better yet if they are blown and thin). The shape of the glass depends primarily on the kind of wine you are serving. Long flutes or chalices for spumante, wide chalices for white wines, large chalices for red wines, slim chalices on top for sweet wines. There are various companies, both in Italy and in foreign countries that produce the suitable glasses for every occasion. They’re generally not inexpensive, but in this case the expression “the expense makes all the difference” pays. Always remember: the right glass can enhance a mediocre wine, just like the wrong glass can kill a great wine! Another fundamental factor is the temperature at which the wine is served. In fact, cold reduces the ardour of the alcohol whereas heat makes it less sour and reduces the tannins and increases the sensation of sweetness. This is why sweet and alcoholic wines must be served cold, whereas red wines must be served at room temperature (by this we mean at 18°C not that of our houses which in summer can also reach 30°C). Therefore to every wine its temperature, ideally, spumante 8°C, white wine and rosés 10-12°C, red wine 16-18°C. Obviously the external temperature greatly influences the serving temperature, in summer wine is served at a slightly cooler temperature than in winter. A thermometer may be useful in order to measure the temperature, even though after a little practice one can do without it. Therefore when you want to drink one of your wines, take it directly from your cellar (use your wine basket) and bring it to a serving temperature. Only a few minutes is necessary for red wines, but for spumante and white wines you’ll need about half and hour in a bucket with water and ice (don’t put it in the fridge!) Both white and red wines should be opened a few minutes beforehand (a little more for young red wines and a good half hour for aged reds) so as to allow the wine to breathe (you can even use a decanter). Smell the cork; you’ll know immediately if it has gone bad and the wine will taste of cork. Try the wine by pouring 2 cm in your glass. If the wine has no defects, before serving you can wet the guests’ glasses. In order to do this, pour 1 cm of wine in the first glass, rotate the glass so as to wet the walls uniformly, empty the contents in a second glass while rotating the glass you are emptying allowing the wine to wet the internal extremity and so on, until you have wet the last glass which will then be emptied in the basket or in the sink. This operation allows that all the bad odours are rinsed away from the glass, if it hasn’t been washed properly of if it hasn’t been used in quite some time. This process is not always necessary ... but it’s definitely picturesque and gives it a touch of colour! The question however of who must be served first, remains. The guests should be served first, but in particular the ladies from the oldest to the youngest (but be careful not to commit any gaffes) then the men from the oldest to the youngest and lastly the hosts. Some say that Cardinals should be served first but I don’t quite agree :-)