A Wine Question

[BostonTigger]

I need to ask for some advise regarding wine. Before I begin I must say, I'm ignorant when it comes to wine. My new roommates gave me a bottle of French wine, a '97 merdoc I believe. They are here for a year of study at law school here in Boston and I've been helping them by picking them up from the airport, finding inexpensive beds, dressers etc. I'm greatful for the wine, but I have a couple of questions; 1) do you need to chill wine before you drink it, or can you drink it room temp.? 2) I don't have a wine rack, so how do I store it once it's open? Thanks in advance.

BT

 

[BostonTigger]

*bump* my own

 

[inaminute]

Not an expert by any means, but here's a little of what I do know:

In general, white wines should be chilled. Not ice-cold, just chilled. Red wines are to be room temperature.

MY DH always pumps out the air from an open bottle of wine and then closes it with a plastic "cork." Even then, we don't keep it for more than three days at most.

Your best bet would be to wait until a special occasion or when there are more than one or two people and drink the whole bottle! Although, one or two people could have a great time with one bottle of wine!

 

[Shellie722]

As a general rule reds are served at or slightly below room temp and whites are chilled. You can get stoppers at your local wine shop, liquor store, or sometimes at a party supply store that you can place in the opened bottle of wine. You should still try to finish the bottle w/ in a week or so, after that the flavor starts to change a bit but the wine would still be good for cooking with. HTH

 

[Margie J]

Storage (unopened): Try to avoid temperature changes, too warm of a room and sunlight. Corked wines should be stored on their sides. If you don't have a rack you can just put the bottle in a place where it won't roll around.

Storage (opened): Special wine "corks" such as Vac-U-Vin are great or short term storage. They come with a simple pump device to remove air and the rubber cork seals the bottle. Kitchen Etc stores and some wine shops have them. Best to just use up all the wine at once though.

 

[BostonTigger]

Thanks for the advice everyone, I really do appreciate it.

BT

 

[Amberle3]

Also a red wine should be open for a few minutes before you pour to let it "breathe". I don't know why.

I used to "volunteer" for a wine symposium for 10 years. I say "volunteer" because my boss ran it, so it wasn't exactly an option. I learned that the reason I can't drink reds is because of the tannins in them. I learned what "legs" are. I learned how to properly pour a glass of wine, and the "proper" way to open champagne.

I also got to sample some very expensive wines that I would ordinarily never have had an opportunity to try, and discovered that price isn't everything. There are some cheapie wines that I like a lot more than the $80 a bottle wines.

Thanks to the symposiums (which branched out from wines occasionally) I had my first taste of sake (yum) and learned what an armagnac is (also yum).

I came across the following website which helps with some of the wine lingo. Might be handy to take a look at before going shopping for wines.

http://www.sallys-place.com/beverages/wine/wine_glossery.htm

 

[BostonTigger]

Thanks Amberle, I really appreciate it. Maybe my new roommates would join me in drinking this bottle. Thanks again everyone.


BT