Imagine a movie with spectacular story and a very bad ending; it would be a disappointment. This can happen when you serve a bad wine.
After the wineries have given one of their best harvests, after the enormous sacrifice and effort by the vine grower; after the enologist provided all his expertise to manage to get the best out of that raw material, and great efforts were made to bring that wine to the end buyer; after all of these sacrifices, a mistake when serving wine can be an awful ending for a story that seemed perfect.
Serving wine properly is an art and not a complicated recipe where one must learn by heart a long list of steps. It is true that there are certain rules, but all of them have a lot to do with common sense. Serving wine properly is a pleasure one must indulge in order to enjoy one of the most exquisite beverages there are.
Next, we are going to analyze one of the main aspects that must be taken into account when it comes to serving wine.
Opening a bottle has certain cares. In order to do it without spoiling the contents, we need a little practice and to master a couple of techniques that are not complex at all. The first thing is to take out the foil covering the neck of the bottle. One must do it by cutting with the knife found in most bottle openers just below the mouth of the bottle, so that when serving, the wine does not come in contact with that foil and drag impurities (pieces of metal, dirt). Personally, I do not think it is wrong to first take off the foil completely, but it is better not to do so.
The second stage is to take out the cork, the most complicated task. One of the best tools to enjoy wine is the bottle opener or corkscrew. So do not hesitate to invest in a good one in order to do this as best as possible. Personally, I believe that the best are the classic ones that have a coil and must be made of very good and resistant material. Among these openers, there are some called “waiter’s” corkscrews, which have two flanges at different levels to make a better pull when taking out the cork.
It is said that it is the most complex task because there are corks that are very damaged, especially in old bottles that have been many years in contact with the wine and, therefore, have deteriorated. Sometimes the new corks are so much adhered to the walls of the neck that one must make a great effort to pull them out. Nowadays, many wineries are using synthetic corks because the classic ones come from a tree and they are in increasingly short supply. Often these corks are even more difficult to pull out.
The first thing you have to do is mark the center of the cork with the tip of the corkscrew’s coil and insert it as vertically as possible. Take the time to do it and remember that you do not need to perforate the cork completely. In fact, if you do, it is likely that remains of the cork will fall into the wine and go with the first glass you serve. Although it is not a rule, reserve wines, the most expensive ones, intended for storage, have longer corks, while wines that are more inexpensive have smaller corks.