What You Need To Know About Wine
When it comes to choosing wine for yourself or for loved ones, it can be a but difficult, especially if you don’t know much about wine to begin with. Luckily, the following article will serve as a great guideline about selecting the right wine. Read on and learn everything you need to about choosing the perfect bottle of wine.
Extra TIP! White wines do not always need to be chilled before serving. They are not the same and have different serving requirements.
If you are serving seafood for dinner, it can be paired quite well with a Pinot Grigio. The wine brings out the amazing flavor of seafood and vice versa. You’ll also find that various other white wines can go great with seafood. White wine is great with seafood.
Extra TIP! Look for online forums of people with similar loves for wine. This is especially true if you live in an area that doesn’t have tastings and clubs.
Avoid over chilling white wines. Many wine drinkers will buy a bottle of their favorite white and return home to pop it in the fridge. While chilling whites is important, too much cold will diminish flavors in the wine; sometimes the most important ones. Target a temperature around 60 degrees up to 68 degrees to achieve the prime flavor.
Extra TIP! Instead of throwing out your last bits of wine, consider saving it for a marinade for dinner the next night. Take your wine, add some seasoning and place it in a bowl.
Build a relationship with the salesperson or owner of the wine store. Don’t be afraid of getting recommendations from them. While you may get some that aren’t fantastic, you can usually find some that are passionate about wine. They can also personally recommend certain kinds. Getting familiar with these people can also help them get to know your preferences.
Extra TIP! Visits to wineries should always be planned ahead of time. Set a budget and make sure someone else will drive you home.
You can easily make a mulled wine with only a few ingredients. You will need a bottle of red wine such as Merlot, Zinfandel or Cabernet Sauvignon, a peeled and sliced orange, a quality brandy, honey or sugar and a few spices including whole cloves, cinnamon and ginger. Combine your ingredients into a slow cooker. Then, heat for 30 minutes and enjoy!
Extra TIP! It will be a lot easier to talk about wine with other connoisseurs if you master their vocabulary. There are specific words used to describe flavors and colors.
Join a wine of the month club with your friends. This can be a great way of learning about the developments in the wine industry and some of the new wines that are on the market. Also, you can get samples of different wines, which can be purchased by the bottle if you enjoy it.
Extra TIP! Try having some merlot with your steak. The fat and umami flavors found in steak, especially medium-rare or rarer, need acidity to cut through their flavor profile.
A good tip when purchasing wine at the supermarket is to know how to pick out the right wine. In the wine aisle, you’ll often find a lot of huge jugs of wine. This type of wine isn’t very good so you’ll want to cross all of those off your list.
Extra TIP! Before leaving the house and hitting up the local venue, know what you are looking for and have a firm goal set in mind. Leaving without knowing exactly what you want might end up as a night spent hopping hopelessly from cellar-to-cellar.
Try having some merlot with your steak. The fat and umami flavors found in steak, especially medium-rare or rarer, need acidity to cut through their flavor profile. Red wine is already a popular pairing for meat. The heavier acidity and fruit of merlot can really liven up your steak dish.
Extra TIP! Make sure that the bottle is very cold when you open it. This will yield much better wine taste, especially if you are serving a large group of people.
If you are serving your wine, you need to have good wine glasses. You need to have clean glasses to serve the wine in. You should never use chipped or dirty glasses to serve wine.
Extra TIP! If you are finished with your sparkling wine, make sure that you do not store it in the refrigerator for any longer than 3 weeks. After this time period, it will lose its taste and quality, rendering it useless as a quality wine.
It may seem very enticing to fill your glass with wine all the way to the top. However, most people don’t understand that the proper way to serve wine is to fill the glass to about one third of the way. This enables the drinker to swirl the wine and fully distribute the taste.
Extra TIP! Don’t stick to the old rules about which color wine goes with which food. Color is not as important as taste.
Keep things quiet and calm when tasting wine. Drinking in the wine means ignoring the world around you. Things that you would not think about can keep you from really taking in all of the flavors. Avoid all distraction for the best experience possible.
Extra TIP! Don’t bother to get expensive wine if you are cooking with it. Most of the wine’s alcohol content cooks off as you make your dish, and the other ingredients will add taste to whatever wine you choose.
Pair spicy foods with sweet wines. Especially with the heat of Thai and Indian food, you will want to stick with dry white and red wines that are sweet. Some great pairings include Chenin Blanc, Gewurztraminer, and Riesling. If you choose Riesling, try going with a German brand since their higher acidity doesn’t make the sweetness seem as apparent. These wines act as palate cleansers to help you enjoy the spiciness of the meal.
Extra TIP! Price is not synonymous with quality when it comes to wine. Many wines have increased prices due to outside investment sources and start-up costs.
Open your bottle of red wine and let it sit before serving it to your guests. By leaving the bottle open, the oxygen with interact with the wine. By doing this, you can ensure that ingredients in the wine are activated. This will provide a great taste.
Extra TIP! Wine can be saved. Once you finish drinking from the bottle for the evening, close it back up and refrigerate it.
Make sure that you store your wines in a place where the temperature is not much too high or much too low. When wine is exposed to warmth, it starts to deteriorate rather quickly, and keeping it for too long in the refrigerator can do the same. It is best to store it in a place that has a moderate temperature.
Extra TIP! Go to a seminar about wine history. This is a hobby you can really get into and learn to love with a bit of education.
Wines are like a sauce for food. Would the meal taste better with some pepper? Look for a peppery red wine! Would butter or lemon work? If so, choose wines with the appropriate undertone. This will never fail you.
Extra TIP! Keep your nose two or three inches away from the glass when you sniff it. People stick their nose right into the glass and miss to many of the great aromas of the wine.
If you are choosing wine to accompany a restaurant meal, you can use your food choice as a guide. Red meats usually call for red wines. Fish, chicken and salads go better with white. If you have a party with a wide variety of dinner choices, try ordering wine either by the glass, or get a bottle of red, one of white and a rose to accomodate everyone.
Extra TIP! When you find a bottle of wine that really hits the spot, put away the whole case for a slightly higher price and you’ll save money in the long run. A case is usually 12 bottles of the same age and flavor.
As was mentioned in the beginning of this article, selecting a nice bottle of wine can be daunting if you are new to the wold of wine. Make sure to implement the information you’ve just read before your next trip to the grocery store so that you make the best decision possible. And always remember to drink responsibly!
For Wine Lovers 
Leave a comment