Wine is a complicated drink, and proper ways to consume and enjoy it are a matter of taste. However, there are certain guidelines coming from sommeliers that are supposed to enhance the experience. Of course, most of us do not have the skill of a sommelier and won't be able to tell terroir of a wine down to a mile, just as an example, or recognize that a certain wine is better when drank one degree warmer or colder. But in general, we do know some guidelines and we do accept and follow them, for example most of us drink white wine chilled and red wine at room temperature, and we let the wine "breathe" a bit before consuming it. Over time we have acquired some wine accessoires that are helpful in getting our wines to the right state for consumption.
Wine Accessoires
First step to get your wine ready for consumption is get the bottle to the right temperature. There is a big topic before reaching this step - wine storage, but I will not go over it now, let's assume you just got a bottle as a hostess gift but the friends that are over for dinner or you just bought it in a store. White wines are generally better chilled and reds are better at cellar temperature. However, depending on grapes, there are even further recommendations on temperature. It is debatable whether an average person will tell the difference, but sommeliers do stand by these grape-specific temperatures. Best way to find out for yourself if you are sensitive enough to recognize the differences is to do a blind tasting - using the same wine, get two or three bottles to different temperatures, have someone serve each to you (so you won't know which is which), and see which you like best and how that compares to recommendation. The first wine accessoire I want to share with you is an excellent tool to chill your wine to the right temperature.
Waring Pro Professional Wine Chiller has a library of preset temperatures for common grapes. Using the controls, you can select red, white, or champagne wine, then select further a specific grape or regional grape blend (besides grapes like Shiraz, Chardonnay, etc included are Bordeaux and Burgundy). You will see current temperature and target temperature.
While wine is being chilled, I do think that this appliance is a bit noisy. Once target temperature is reached, wine is kept at that temperature, so it will occasionally turn on and off. There is an option to switch between Celsius and Fahrenheit scales.
Once wine is at the right temperature, you need to open the bottle.
A small but a wonderful tool is foil cutter. Yes, task can be accomplished with a knife or fingernails or teeth, but after seeing how easily and fast waiters open cut that top of foil right in front of us at the table, I had to get one, and I love it.
Inner part contains 3 round sharp cutters that hug the neck of the bottle when you press a button, then you turn this cutter around (going back and forth once is best in my experience), and foil comes off easily. You can see above how neat it is.
Next, a good and sturdy wine bottle opener is a must. There are many more advanced tools for this job, but as long as it provides a good lever to pull out the cork, it is all good. Not having a good opener will easily be a source of broken corks, half-stuck in the neck and cork pieces floating in your wine.
Often enough once you get cork out, it won't easily go back in, so have a few wine stoppers on hand. Doesn't have to be fancy, but a good idea to have.
Wine, being a living thing due to yeast, evolves with age. If you look at the prices of wines, quite often the older the wine the more expensive it is. With age come better-developed flavors - wine is just better as it matures, in general. Most of us however do not have the money to buy well-aged wine or patience to wait for 10 years to enjoy the bottle we just purchased. Most of the commonly consumed wines are 2-5 years old. A trick to quickly "age" the wine is to aerate it. Simplest way is to pour wine in a glass and let it stand, swerving it also helps. Basic idea is to expose as much of wine as possible to air. Old wines do not need aeration, in fact old wines should be consumed rather fast after cork is popped. But for a relatively new wine there are additional ways to aerate and age it. One is to decant the wine. It is a good idea if you are having a dinner party. But for the two of us, consuming a whole bottle of wine in one evening is just too much alcohol (yes, there are small decanters too). We mostly drink wine glass at a time, and an aerator is a wonderful solution.
This one is by Vinturi. The shape of the cavity into which wine is poured promotes maximum exposure to air. Having a filter also helps catch sediment. While just the top part (pictured above) is the actual aerator, having a stand is certainly nice (below).
When we just got this aerator, we did a blind tasting of wine straight out of the bottle (just opened) vs aerated, and aerated one was better in my opinion.
I generally aerate wine only if we just opened a bottle. If bottle was opened for a day or two, I just let it stand in a glass for a bit, and this is sufficient for my tastes. And these are a few simple tools and few simple steps to get a bit more out of your glass of wine.
Dinner
Tonight's dinner can only be simpler if we ordered for delivery. Start with sausage - I used chorizo.
Start preparing pasta. Boil water, then add pasta, cook a few minutes uncovered until al dente.
Meanwhile, cut tomatoes.
I love basil in Italian inspired dishes like this (I'm not calling it completely Italian because I am using chorizo). To chiffonade basil, stack the leaves, then fold or roll them lengthwise and slice.
Heat a pan, add olive oil and break sausage into pieces and fry until fully cooked.
Using slotted spoon, remove sausage from the pan and set aside.
Add tomatoes.
Cook a few minutes until they start breaking up and sauce forms.
Add pasta, sausage, basil, mix. Season to taste.
Serve. If you wish, sprinkle some grated cheese on top.
This was one of the easiest and fastest dinner preparations of my life. Despite the simplicity, it was a delicious dish and flavors were excellent. Wine pairing worked very well too. It was an interesting blend of Dolcetto and Syrah grapes. I do love Syrah/Shiraz in general, Dolcetto is a much less familiar grape to me, but overall it is a well-balanced and very enjoyable wine.
Top Chef
Wednesday night is of course Top Chef night. I did enjoy the finale, both meals appeared very exciting and inspiring. Of course I was cheering for Paul, and I certainly loved the fact that when audience poll of who should win was shown, Paul had 88% and Sarah - 12%! I do see that she is passionate about cooking, but somehow she is just not a likable person. Very happy to see Paul win. Congratulations, Paul!
And with this happy news, I wish you good night.
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