Wine Review: Some rules are meant to be followed

Rules, rules and more rules: There are rules for almost everything, some of which must be followed and some of which should be followed. Wine is no different.

For wine, there are rules on serving, pouring, storing, the bottle shape, the proper glasses, the stopper, and on and on, ad infinitum. Most of these rules are for wine snobs and have little to do with the average wine drinker. There are, however, some good ideas to observe for the serving and enjoyment of wine.

Let’s start with a common error: serving a red wine the day it is brought home or is delivered. Red wines suffer from a problem called bottle sickness, which occurs when the wine is served too soon after bringing it home. It is nothing serious or even devastating, but the wine loses some of its character caused by the shaking on the trip home as well as muting the flavor and aroma. Bottle sickness cannot be avoided and is cured by letting the wine stand still for at least a few hours; a full day is best, but an hour or so is the bare minimum.

One rule that really annoys me is that red wine should be served at room temperature. The statement is actually true – red wines should be served at room temperature. The room being referred to, however, is in France of the 1600s where there was no central heating or cooling, and a wine cellar was a basement or a hole in the ground that held the wine at a constant 68 degrees Fahrenheit year-round. To emulate that ancient French home, put the wine in the door of the refrigerator for about 15 minutes prior to serving and then marvel at the difference. All of the characteristics that wine columnists report about and that you never really experienced will appear, as if by magic.

White wines also are affected by the rules of the past. Invariably, white wines will be served too cold, and in doing so, the wine loses much of its flavor and aroma attributes. Cool is the order of the day, not cold. About half an hour in the fridge door should do the trick and will produce a wine that might just astound the reader by showing flavors and aromas that were often rarely discernible.

Then there are the wine glasses. Believe it or not, the wine glass does have an effect on the flavor and aroma of a wine. My advice is to scrap the wine glasses that you inherited from your aunt with the green leaves wrapped around the stem and get glasses that work. I am not suggesting that you purchase some expensive crystal glassware, but rather get a glass that is somewhat more friendly to the wine than the ones that you bought at the dollar store. Being a klutz (Brooklynese for a clumsy person), I stay away from stemware; they look great but invariably will break at the stem. My solution is the stemless wine glassware, which is available on Amazon for less than $10 a glass or from a wine store. Even if you should find them at the dollar store, it is their shape that counts and not the quality of the glass. Try tasting your favorite wine in your present wineglass and then the stemless glass; I am sure you will more than notice the difference.

Lastly is the storage of unfinished wine. There are many storage systems available, and none of them really work well, with the vacuum systems being the absolute worst. The best way is to put the cork back in the bottle and set the wine in the coldest part of the refrigerator. There will be some degradation in the attributes; the same as will also occur with any of other mechanical storage devices. So, why waste your money on one? Better you should spend it on a good bottle of wine.

Wine columnist Bennet Bodenstein can be reached at frojhe1@att.net.