Guide to Serving and Tasting Wine

Care and handling are important for a quality taste experience. Little things like where you store it to how you taste it can make all the difference and take your Missouri wine experience to a whole new level.

Storing

You don’t have to have an elaborate or expensive wine cellar to store wine properly, but please don’t let it rest on your fridge. Remember to keep it in a cool, dark place (away from direct sunlight) with the bottles on their sides to keep the cork moistened. White wines are typically good for 3–5 years and red wines will usually last 5–10 years. Wine does improve with age, but for the impatient—you can drink them when you buy them! And don’t feel that you have to drink the entire bottle in one sitting; wine stays fine for several days if re-corked and refrigerated.

Here are more cellar tips for storing your wine.

Temperature

Serving wine too warm causes the alcohol to overpower the characteristics of the wine. Serving wine too cold masks the flavor of the wine. To get it just right, remember two simple formulas: 45-55-65 and 3-2-1. Sparkling wines and champagnes should be well chilled to about 45°F (7°C) prior to serving, so refrigerate them for three hours. White table wines should be served at about 55°F (13°C), so count on two hours in the fridge. The same goes for late harvest or ice wines for dessert. Red wines, ports, and sherries should be served at a cool room temperature around 65°F (18°C), so if your room isn’t cool, put them in the refrigerator for 30 minutes to 1 hour.

Glasses

No, you don’t have to spend a fortune on glasses to enjoy wine. In fact, you can use your orange juice or water glass if you wish. But if you drink wine regularly, you may want to use an all-purpose wine glass that is suitable for all types of wine. You could also start with a basic white wine glass and a red wine glass (red wine glasses are slightly larger than white wine glasses).

If you become more of a connoisseur, there are varietal-specific glasses. For example, Riedel, the famous wine glass company out of Austria, makes a wine glass specifically for Norton. When it comes to sparkling wines, don’t use flat glasses because all that surface area makes the magic bubbles dissipate into the air. Use a tall and thin flute glass so you can enjoy the bubbles instead.

Serving Order

For the same reason you have salad and steak before cheesecake, dry wines should be tasted before sweet so that the sugar of a sweet wine does not impinge on the taste of a dry wine. Light wines come before full-bodied wines. Young wines are normally before old, as old wines tend to be more complex.

Opening It Right

First, a word of caution: when opening a bottle of sparkling wine or champagne, never shake the bottle or point the cork in the direction of another person (unless you don’t like them). Hold the bottle in one hand and the cork in the other, and then twist the bottle – not the cork – keeping downward pressure on the cork until you hear a gentle pop. Sparkling and white wines should be opened just prior to serving, while red wines can be opened well before serving to allow them to “breathe” – that is, mix with air to develop their full aroma and flavor. There are a variety of corkscrews out there, find one that is easiest for you to use!

There is such a thing as a “corked” wine. When opening wines with an authentic (not synthetic) cork, it needs to be checked. Simply pour a small amount in a glass, swirl and sniff. If it smells like wet cardboard, mold or your grandma’s basement it may be corked which means the wine has been exposed to TCA, most likely through the cork itself. While harmless, it can result in the wine losing its flavor. Simply return the wine to its point of purchase and request a new bottle.

Pouring

Except for sparkling wines, you should fill glasses only about one-third to halfway. Much of wine’s pleasure comes from its aroma, which should be allowed to develop in the top half of the glass. To truly savor it, swirl the wine gently before inhaling its essence.

Tasting Wine

Tasting actually involves all of your senses, reflecting wine’s sensual nature. All you have to do is remember the “5S” method:

• See - The first step is to enjoy the wine’s color – straw or golden yellow for a white wine; brick, red or deep purple for a red wine; and salmon or bright pink for a blush or rose′. Simply hold your glass up to the light or against a white background to admire the hue.
• Swirl then Smell - Much of wine’s pleasure is the aroma, which comes from the grapes, and the bouquet, which reflects the wine making process. To evaluate the bouquet, gently swirl your glass to release many of the wine’s natural aromas. Stick your nose down inside your glass and take a quick deep inhalation. Depending on the type of wine, you may discover hints of other familiar smells – citrus, apples, flowers, plums or even chocolate. Some of the smells you might find from a white wine include citrus fruits, tropical fruits, berries, flowers, vegetable, earth and wood. Some of the smells you might find from a red wine include berries, spices, herbs, earth and wood.
• Sip - Take a small sip, roll it around in your mouth to expose it to all the taste buds and breathe in a little air to once again release the aroma as you are tasting. Notice the taste and the texture – how it feels in your mouth, from light and refreshing to full and robust.
• Spit or Swallow - The former may sound impolite, but it’s not. In fact, it’s the only way to taste if you are sampling many wines, and it can be done very discreetly. At many tasting counters, you’ll notice a large bucket for that purpose as well as for any leftover wine in your glass. If you are not driving or consuming too many wines, you may prefer to swallow the small samples offered.
• Savor - Most wines have a lingering aftertaste or “finish” even after you have completed the actual tasting. Like sight and smell, this is another pleasurable bonus from “tasting” wine.

The sense of taste consists of taste buds located on the tongue. The taste buds are not evenly distributed, therefore it is necessary to move or roll the tongue around so that the entire surface is exposed to the food or beverage in the mouth. The four basic tastes are sweet, acid, salt, and bitter.

The sweet taste is perceived on the tip; acid or sour taste is perceived on the side and just underneath; salt taste is perceived on the edges; and bitter taste is perceive on the back of the tongue. A large part of the tongue area is not sensitive to taste. All the taste buds do not taste all the taste components. Some may perceive just one taste (e.g., sweetness); others may perceive a combination of any of the four sensations.