You can spend a lifetime studying about wine and nonetheless not know all of it. Buying, having fun with and storing wine is nuanced however a couple of tweaks might help even probably the most newbie imbiber get extra out of each bottle. To collect suggestions, pitfalls to keep away from and to separate few wine myths from actuality, I spoke with Jerry Chandler, a wine marketing consultant, professional and the final supervisor of The Bohemian Wine Bar in Charlotte, North Carolina. Chandler revealed 5 errors that even seasoned wine drinkers make — from serving on the fallacious temperature to aggressive cork removing — and defined how avoiding them can elevate the expertise.Read extra: 35 Best Wine Gifts, According to a Sommelier1. Drinking it on the fallacious temperature Storing your wine correctly has an outsized impact on how effectively it’s going to age. Cavan Images/Getty ImagesWe are likely to drink white wine straight out of the fridge and purple wine proper off the counter, however each may benefit from coming a bit extra towards the middle for a really perfect serving temperature. Neither ice-cold white wine nor too-warm purple wine can successfully categorical their fragrant compounds. The flavors of white wine are extra dynamic within the 40s or 50s (Fahrenheit, that’s) and purple wines within the 50s or 60s.Pro tip: Put purple wine within the fridge briefly earlier than servingTo obtain this, “it’s OK to put red wine in the fridge for 10 or 15 minutes, just to get it a little bit cooler,” Chandler says. Similarly, you’ll be able to take away your white wine from the fridge 15 to 20 minutes earlier than you plan to serve it, or simply chill a room temperature bottle of white in a bucket of ice water for that very same period of time. “That’s going to give you that temperature that’s going to be in the 40s,” he says, “but it’s not going to be too cold.” 2. Storing it improperly Wine ought to be saved someplace dry, cool and away from direct daylight. Getty ImagesYou do not should have a wine cellar or wine assortment to heed a couple of widespread sense practices when storing wine. Most wine within the US is consumed inside a couple of hours of buy, during which case not loads can go fallacious, however even in the event you’re preserving a bottle for a few days to save lots of for an important day, “make sure you’re being mindful,” Chandler says, to make sure that no matter wine you may have does not turn into a waste of cash resulting from improper dealing with.Light, warmth and movement can have an effect on even cheap bottles. “You don’t ever want to leave wine where the temperatures will constantly fluctuate,” Chandler says, which will be wherever that will get direct daylight at any a part of the day. You additionally do not need to go away it someplace the place it’s continually going to be transferring,” he says, which can disrupt any sediment and affect its flavor.Leaving a bottle of wine in a vehicle, for example, can expose it to extreme temperatures both high and low as well as subject it to excessive movement. The best way to store wine for more than a few hours is on its side in a consistently cool place that doesn’t receive direct sunlight.3. Popping sparkling wine like an amateur Leave the Champagne spraying to Nascar drivers and Super Bowl winners. Shutterstock The pop of a bottle of Champagne or sparkling wine can be festive, but it greatly reduces the carbonation in the bottle and can be downright dangerous. Most sparkling wines are topped with a mushroom-shaped cork, plus a metal cage, which keeps the cork in place since the bottle’s contents are pressurized.That cage has another purpose: It can also help you open the bottle safely. It should be unscrewed and loosened but left in place to help you remove the cork. “You use the perimeters of the cage to softly grip and twist. That’s going to permit among the strain to slowly alleviate from the bottle,” Chandler says. This releases the cork in a slower and more controlled fashion and preserves more of the carbon dioxide responsible for the bubbles.”I watch so many individuals simply unscrew the cage after which take the cage off, and I at all times really feel my coronary heart skip a beat since you are permitting that cork to do something it needs, together with blasting off in any route, full velocity,” Chandler says. “Never take away that cage except you are eradicating it with the cork.”4. Buying wine based on packaging If you turn your nose up at wine with a screw top, you’re going to miss out on a few excellent budget-friendly bottles. Getty ImagesThere may have been a time when the heaviness of the bottle or the type of closure used were guarantees of a wine’s quality, but that is no longer the case. Along with other types of alcoholic beverages, wine has evolved to meet the moment, and matters of sustainability as well as improvements in technology have created more diverse packaging options.”Science has come a great distance in preserving wine, particularly over the previous 20 years,” Chandler says, but some people still hold prejudices about wine sealed with a screw top. (“Stelvin closure” to wine pros.) “You’re not going to need to lay down a bottle for 20 years that has a screw prime,” he says, “however for wines that you’ll drink quickly, a screw prime is completely high quality.”Read more: Ask the Expert: How to Find a Great Wine on a BudgetMany wine producers are actually decreasing their bottle weight as they’ve rolled out sustainability initiatives, and some major wine reviewers are refusing to rate wines whose bottles are above a certain weight. Both canned wine and boxed wine are also increasing in quality as those packages are also becoming championed with sustainability measures. Basically, wine has entered its “do not choose it by its cowl” era.5. Never leaving your comfort zone Adventurous wine drinkers have more fun. Getty ImagesThere are literally thousands of wine grape varieties, not to mention wine producers, yet most of us tend to drink the same few bottles on repeat. Because of the way wine is distributed in the US, it’s difficult to find producers whose wines are consistently available from store to store. Or to find a bottle you loved at a restaurant on your local retail shelves. A lot of us tend to drink the same mass-produced brands and familiar grapes because we can always find them.This too, is a mistake, in terms of getting the best bang for your buck, knowing what’s actually in your bottle and expanding your palate. “With mass-produced wines, I at all times take into consideration what else is in there to maintain them at that very same constant taste profile,” Chandler says. (Hint: it’s more than just grapes.) Anything that has the kind of marketing budget for major advertising tends to represent wine made in conference rooms rather than in vineyards.It can be understandably hard to branch out. “When I first began studying wine, I solely needed to drink sure issues as a result of I did not need to spend the cash and danger it,” Chandler says. Rather than focus on a few bottles, try to understand the flavor profiles you like and be willing to engage with wine pros in retail or restaurant settings that can use your preferences to introduce you to new things. “Wine is an limitless expertise,” he says, “and we wish folks to be as excited to do that factor for the primary time the way in which we had been.”
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