Wine is a fantastic world and everyone takes it cheerfully or as a purist, as they see fit. However, for everyone, there are useful habits, as well as real mistakes, which should never be made. Errors that are essential to know to avoid ruining the tasting.
Whether you are a beginner or a person with many bottles on your CV, here are the mistakes not to make when tasting wine. For everything else, there is only the pleasure of tasting and the variety of approaches that wine allows.
1. Shake the bottle before uncorking it.
Harmful for sparkling wines, it creates unnecessary stress on the wine and puts any residues into circulation. The only exception: wines with grounds, i.e. those refermented in the bottle whose grounds, if desired, can be put into circulation.
2. Pour the wine by holding the bottle by the neck.
Here it is above all a question of elegance, because pouring from the bottom of the bottle is a much more beautiful gesture, but there is practical use, and it consists in showing the label, so whoever is served knows which wine they are about to drink.
3. Uncork the bottle with a bang.
Uncorking noisily brings joy but the most chic always avoid it (there are whole leagues of people who try to uncork sparkling wines producing only a slight hiss...). On special occasions however, long live the bang, which as per tradition chases away evil spirits!
- Read also: how to make a perfect toast
4. Serve red wine too hot.
Unless you are in extreme climatic conditions, the wine can only increase in temperature once uncorked, so a temperature that is too high is a problem that is difficult to remedy after serving the wine. Furthermore, today there is a tendency to greatly reduce the room temperature for reds, not only because it depends on the environment but also because the taste for more agile reds that has established itself in recent years is in agreement with lower temperatures, which barely bring the emphasis on the hardness rather than the softness of the wine.
- Read also: at what temperature to serve wine
5. Do not provide different glasses for water and wine.
The only excuse is if the water one is not used.
Fill the glass with wine to the brim.
Filling the glass too much is inelegant due to the gestures that the unfortunate person would be forced to make to ensure they do not spill it. The glass is filled with wine for a maximum of two thirds.
Furthermore, the wine warms up more quickly in the glass than when it is in the bottle, so the finish could be decidedly less pleasant.
6. Swirl the glasses of sparkling wine.
The classic gesture of swirling the wine inside the glass before sipping it is not suitable for sparkling wines: it would ruin the perlage by evaporating the carbon dioxide too quickly.
7. Hold the glass by your belly.
In the glass there is a stem for holding the glass from there: this prevents the wine from heating up and (possible) odors from the hands from interfering with the tasting.
- Read also: how to hold the glass
8. Place a young wine in the decanter.
The decanter is mainly used to eliminate any residues, as well as to oxygenate structured wines. If the wine is young and ready to drink, the oxygen supply that the glass gives it is more than sufficient.
- Read also: when to use the decanter
9. Use pedantic tones to describe it.
Even if I were a master of wine, what's the point?
10. Turn the finished bottle upside down in the ice bucket.
Again, it is inelegant and serves no purpose.
