How to order and taste wine correctly

2024 Author: Malcolm Clapton | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 03:44

Find out why you need to sniff the cork and whether it is possible to return the drink if your girlfriend did not like it.

In the movies, we often see how the main character rolls wine in a glass, identifies by smell that it is a 1941 Cabernet Sauvignon and exclaims: “Oh yes! The harvest that summer turned out to be quite good! At this moment, a loud bang is heard - this sommelier of the whole world is making a hand.

Artemy Lebedev examines all the stages of ordering and tasting wine and gives some interesting facts about this drink.

How to order wine

1. When you come to a restaurant, you must first be given a wine list along with the menu. If the place is rustic, it can be found on the back of the menu.

2. If you haven’t yet developed a wine preference, be guided by price. Just order something from the price range where the toad won't choke you. Then, with time, addictions will appear - for example, it is better to never order Armenian wine, but Spanish is always great. With experience, it will become clear to you that you cannot drink pinot noir and merlot, even if they are given to you for free, since this is shit in 99% of cases.

3. Never buy into the name of the region. Sometimes even from smart people you can hear: “Oh, barolo! This is a very good wine, I know it! In Barolo, what kind of shit they don't do, you can't love it just for the name.

4. The entire wine industry is as much a super-scam as the world of fashion or jewelry. Almost all connoisseurs, if they pour wine from a bottle without a label, do not say the country, name, variety and price, will not determine anything.

Wine without a legend is badly drunk. This is the main secret. Therefore, wine is always history, mood, atmosphere, conversation, food and company. That's why we love him.

5. They bring you a bottle and usually show you the label. At this point you need to nod - what can I say? The main thing is to make sure that it was red, not white, that was brought.

6. The waiter or sommelier opens the bottle. You can just wait for this to happen to continue the conversation with the girl.

7. In simple establishments, the waitress puts the cork in her apron pocket, and in pretentious establishments, on a saucer. Always ask for a cork! If it is not glass, tin or rubber, but a cork stopper, you can immediately understand everything from it. First, the wine should not soak it more than a couple of millimeters. Secondly, you need to smell it. On the hundredth stopper, the fragrance will start to be informative. At least at the level of "shit - not shit" or "spoiled - not spoiled" everything is already clear by the smell and appearance of the cork. For very old wines, the corks can crumble into dust, there's nothing you can do about it.

8. If the place is pretentious, the wine will be poured into a decanter. It is primarily needed in order to rid the drink of sediment from the bottle. The second (side) function is aeration of the wine ("to breathe").

9. Glasses must be odorless. When the glass is empty in a restaurant, just smell it. If it carries a detergent or grandfather's cupboard (very often!), Just ask to wash it under the tap.

How to taste wine

1. The sommelier usually pours wine for a young man to sample. It is very rarely asked who will try. You need to twist the glass, pressing the bottom to the table, and then, smacking your lips, suck a small amount into your mouth, open your mouth (until you swallow) and make your tongue right and left so that the wine is saturated with air. The taste should be felt on the entire tongue and palate.

2. And here is the most important thing. What should be evaluated at this moment? What should I say to the waiter? What if the wine tastes like shit? Can I refuse? It was expensive!

It's simple. Since wine is always a lottery, you can only appreciate its spoilage. If it just doesn't taste good, that's your problem. It is clear that if you order a bottle for $ 1,000, have a drink and ask to take it away, this is not the most convenient situation for a restaurant.

If the wine tastes like sour vinegar or smells like it was opened a week ago, feel free to ask for a replacement bottle or bring another one.

Usually no one will argue with you, the waiter is not fined for this. A sommelier may come up to assess your adequacy as a taste evaluator in an unobtrusive conversation. Then he will try it himself, agree and replace.

3. Okay, we appreciated it, they poured it for us. Here you can experiment. Pour the same amount of wine into two identical glasses. Twist one glass a little (five times) so that the wine rolls in a circle. And now just smell the wrong glass first, then the twisted one. Then try each one.

4. Enjoy!