PREPARING AND SERVING WINE

 

Temperature

 

Wine temperature is essential for tasting. Too cold a wine would loose a big part of its scents and flavours and too hot a wine would loose its crispness (white and Rosé) and could even seems heavy (red). Generally, white and Rosé need a cooler temperature than red wines. Generally again, young and light wines must be served cooler than old and full bodied wines. 2 other major criteria play a role in the optimum tasting temperature of a wine: type and appellation.
 

Optimum service temperature by type

 

wine types temperature
Dry and off dry white wines 10 to 14°C

Semi-sweet and sweet white wines

10 to 12°C

Luscious white wines

6 to 8°C

Rosé wines

10 to 12°C
Light bodied red wines 10 to 12°C
Medium bodied red wines 15 to 16°C
Full bodied red wines 16 to 17°C
Champagnes and Sparkling wines (Cremant...) 7 to 9°C

Optimum service temperature according appellation

 

To use this table you have to take into account the appellation but you also have to determine if the wine is young or old according to the aging potential. If it is a young wine consider the minimum temperature; if it is an old wine take the maximum temperature.

 

region appellations colour aging potential temperature

Alsace

Gewurztraminer
Pinot Gris
Riesling

White
White
White

2 to 10 years
4 to 5 years
2 to 10 years

10 to 14°C
11 to 12°C
8 to 10°C

Beaujolais

Beaujolais Nouveau
Beaujolais Village
Chiroubles
Morgon
Moulin à vent

Red
Red
Red
Red
Red

2 years
2 to 5 years
2 to 5 years
3 to 8 years
5 to 12 years

9 to 11°C
11 to 12°C
8 to 10°C
13 to 14°C
14 to 15°C

Bordeaux

Canon Fronsac
Graves
Haut Medoc
Lussac Saint Emilion
Margaux
Medoc
Pauillac
Pomerol
Saint Emilion


Saint Estephe
Saint Julien
Sainte Croix de Mont
Sauterne

Red
Red
Red
Red
Red
Red
Red
Red
Red


Red
Red
White
White

4 to 20 years
5 to 15 years
10 to 20 years
4 to 10 years
20 to 40 years
10 to 20 years
10 to 20 years
20 to 40 years
10 to 40 years


10 to 20 years
10 to 20 years
20 years and more
20 years and more

15 to 17°C
15 to 17°C
17 to 18°C
15 to 16°C
15 to 16°C
14 to 15°C
17 to 18°C
16 to 17°C
Young :12 to 13°C
Old : 15 to 16°C
15 to 18°C
15 to 17°C
6 to 8°C
6 to 8°C

Bourgogne

Aloxe Corton
Beaune
Petit Chablis
Chablis
Chassagne-Montrachet
Côtes de Beaune
Côtes de Nuit Villages
Crémant de Bourgogne
Echezeaux
Fixin
Gevrey-Chambertin
 

Macôn
Mercurey
Mercurey
Meursault
Montagny
Monthélie
Nuit Saint Georges
Pommard
Pouilly Fuissé
Romanée-Conti
Rully
Rully
Saint Véran
Volnay
Vosne-Romanée

Red
Red
White
White
White
Red
Red
White - Rosé
Red
Red
Red
 

White
Red
White
White
White
Red
Red
Red
White
Red
White
Red
White
Red
Red

4 to 15 years
4 to 12 years
3 to 10 years
5 to 15 years
3 to 8 years
5 to 8 years
3 to 6 years
2 to 7 years
6 to 15 years
5 to 15 years
5 to 20 years

 

2 to 5 years
5 to 10 years
5 to 10 years
8 to 15 years
 2 to 10 years
5 to 10 years
5 to 20 years
5 to 15 years
10 to 12 years
10 to 30 years
2 to 8 years
2 to 6 years
 5 to 7 years
5 to 10 years
5 to 15 years

16 to 17°C
16 to 17°C
8 to 10°C
8 to 10°C
12 to 14°C
13 to 14°C
16 to 17°C
7 to 9°C
16 to 17°C
16 to 17°C
Young : 12 to 14°C

Old : 15 to 16°C
11 to 13°C
14 to 16°C
11 to 12°C
12 to 14°C
11 to 13°C
14 to 15°C
14 to 15°C
14 to 15°C
12 to 14°C
17 to 18°C
8 to 10°C
15 to 16°C
11 to 13°C
15 to 16°C
13 to 16°C

Côtes du Rhône

Chateauneuf du Pape
Côte Rôtie
Côtes du Rhône village
Crozes-Hermitage
Gigondas
Saint Joseph
Vacqueyras

Red
Red
Red
Red
Red
Red
Red

5 to 10 years
5 to 15 years
2 to 5 years
5 to 12 years
5 to 12 years
3 to 10 years
5 to 7 years

16 to 18°C
16 to 18°C
15 to 16°C
16 to 17°C
15 to 16°C
18 to 19°C
17 to 18°C

Languedoc

Corbières
Fitou
Maury
Tavel

Red
Red
Red
Rosé

8 to 10 years
2 to 10 years
15 à 20 years
2 to 6 years

16 to 18°C
16 to 17°C
14 to 15°C
8 to 10°C

Provence

Bandol
Cassis
Coteau d’Aix en Provence
Côtes de Provence
Les Baux de Provence
Patrimonio
Vin de Corse

Rosé
White
Rosé - White
Rosé
Rosé
Rosé - White
Rosé - White

1 to 3 years
3 to 5 years
2 years
1 to 3 years
2 years
2 to 3 years
2 to 3 years

8 to 10°C
8 to 10°C
7 to 9°C
8 to 10°C
7 to 9°C
8 to 10°C
8 to 10°C

Loire et Centre

Anjou
Bourgueil
Chinon
Coteaux du Layon
Muscadet
Rosé d’Anjou
Sancerre
Saumur-Champigny
Vouvray

White
Red
Red
White
White
Rosé
White
Red
White

2 to 10 years
5 to 20 years
3 to 10 years
5 to 20 years
1 to 2 years
1 to 2 years
2 to 5 years
3 to 10 years
5 to 20 years

8 to 10°C
15 to 16°C
16 to 17°C
7 to 8°C
8 to 10°C
10 to 11°C
10 to 12°C
15 to 17°C
8 to 10°C
 

Some advices

 

If the temperature of the room is hot, serve the wines a little big cooler than indicated in the table because the wine heats up quickly. To refresh the wines, you can use an ice bucket which is better than a fridge. You can also employ innovative tools like the freezing bag that you put on the freezer and then around the bottle and other more technical accessories that you will find in your wine shop. Anyway do not refresh the wine directly in the freezer.

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Uncorking the bottle

Uncork the bottle at the adequate temperature. The cap can be cut in the middle of the bottle ring or just below. For the old wines, be carefully because the cork can be very breakable. You also have to avoid screwing beyond the cork. For champagnes and sparkling wines, hold the cork with one hand and have the bottle slowly turning with the other hand.

 

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Decanting the wine Why is wine decantation interesting ?  

Though wine decanting is a contentious subject, it is essential to appreciate some wines. It allows to get ride of sediment in the bottle especially if the wine has not been filtered*. Decanting accelerates wine oxygenation and enables the restitution of wine aromas and flavours. Yet, decanting must not be applied to all the wines.

 

* some winemakers avoid to filter wine to preserve wine's body and flavours.
 

Which wines need decantation ?  

Young red wines need a decantation especially if too "tanique". Young white wines can be decanted to reveal aromas. Old wines could be quickly destroyed by a decantation. Champagnes or sparkling wines don’t need it.

What does decanting consist in ?  

Decanting consists in slowly and delicately pouring the wine in a decanter about 2 hours before serving. Then let the wine in the decanter without recapping, preferably with no strong odours around.

 

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Serving the wine

  For wine tasting use closed tulip shaped glasses which will enable to catch all the aromas and concentrate them toward the nose. Fill in the glass 1/3 of its capacity. Large glasses can be used for young or ready to drink wines. However, for old wines, prefer narrow glasses to avoid a quick evaporation of the scents. For champagnes and sparkling wines, flutes are the most appropriate to appreciate the "bubbles' dance".

When tasting several wines, the serving order must respect an inescapable rule: “the wine that you drink must not make you regret the previous wine”. For this you will have to taste in the following order:
- from the most simple wines to the most complex ones
- from the youngest wines to the oldest ones
- from the light wines to the full-bodied ones
- from the driest wines to the sweetest ones.  

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WINE TASTING AND QUALIFYING

  Wine Tasting

 

Wine tasting is not reserved to experts.You just have to use your sight, smell and taste and know a little bit on tasting process that we described in this document. You will see that if you practice, you will learn very quickly and improve your sense of tasting. To begin, a small but important advice: you have to taste wines in a quiet place where there is no troubling scents which could and change your perception. There is 3 main stages: looking at, smelling and tasting.

Stage 1 Appearance

  Pour some wine in a suitable glass of wine (eg a glass in form of tulip with base larger base than the top).  
1/ Look at the colour hues and check the table below :

The colour is linked to the type of wine but the hue is linked to its age and this gives an indication on wine aging. For red wine, a purple hue indicate a young wine while a brown one is a characteristics of old wine. Young white wines would be paler and old ones could be brown. The same phenomenon is valid for Rosé
Category Colour Hue
Red wine purple, ruby, garnet, tawny, brown
Rosé pink, salmon, orange
White wine colourless, lemon green, lemon, gold, amber, brown

2/ Observe the flowing :
After swirling your glass, you can check the wine rotation speed. This experience is particularly interesting to evaluate the sweetness of white wines because the sweeter it is, the slower will be the moving in the glass.

3/ Finally observe the legs or tears :
After you swirl or lean a glass, it often leaves a coating on the inside of the glass that separates into viscous-looking rivulets called legs or tears. These legs slowly slide down the glass, returning to the wine's surface. The slower is this slide, the richer and full bodied wine is. Another observation you can make is the numbers of legs or tears as the more tears, the more alcohol the wine contains.
 

Stage 2 : Smell the wine

 

1/ Take a little smell of the wine and try to evaluate intensity of the aromas (light, medium or pronounced, if the wine has a fault and havea general first impression.

2/ Swirl your glass to enhance aromas and putting your noise in the glass take a large smell. According to the complexity of the aromas you can have an indication again on wine aging as the older wines have more complex aromas than younger ones.

3/ After this stage, you can try to recognize the aromas which can be part in 11 groups :
- floral : lime blossom, rose, orange flower…
- fresh fruits : black currant, cherry, peach…
- candied and dried fruits : cooked fruits, nuts, almond…
- vegetal : grass, mint, underbrush,tea…
- animal : musk, leather, pelt...
- empyreumatic : coffee, grilled almonds, chocolate...
- spices : vanilla, pepper, cinnamon, green mint...
- mineral : flint, stone, iodine...
- candy : gingerbread, semisweet, english candy...
- balsamic : pin, resin, incense
- wood : oak, cedar...
 

Stage 3 : Taste the wine in mouth

 

1/ Start with a small sip and allow a small breath of air through your lips and let it mingle with wine your tongue and your palate. You can have a first impression on the harmony of the wine and also an idea on the structure from light bodied to full bodied. You will also find if it is acid or sweet, aggressive or round. A red wine naturally contains "tanins" like Tea. When tanins are young, they taste like your mouth is going dry...We talk about "Astringence". This feeling can be bad but might be great when matching with appropriate meals. When tanins they get older they taste more and more delicate and smooth. In fact, tanins is part of the wine's body. Concerning Whites and Rosés, some other complex elements same as tanins are part the wine's body... They are called "polyphénols" and are main elements about the wine's benefit for health.

2/ After this first impression allow another breath of air. This will enable you to feel the flavours more intensely. As for the smell, you can try to determine the flavours which are the same as the smelling aromas.

3/ Finally you can evaluate the finish of the wine. The length is the time lap the flavour stay in your palate after it is swallowed. The more is this time long, the greater is the wine. You can also determine if the finish is harmonious and silky or aggressive and rude.

A great wine is a delicate wine, complex, harmonious and with a long finish but remember that no one can decide for you and a good wine is anyway a wine you appreciate. Your tasting will also depends on what you eventually the food you eat with the wine. Furthermore you will discover that your appreciation depends a lot on the instant and the situation. It is why WineSight recommends certain wines according to tasting moment’s or even.

 

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Qualifying a wine

 

LOOK THE APPEARANCE Description indication on

Colour (hue)

Red White

Rosé

purple, ruby, garnet, tawny, brown pink, salmon, orange

colourless, lemon green, lemon, gold, amber, brown

Age

Flowing

flimsy, flowing, dense

Sweetness

Legs or Tears

Short, long

Richness, body
smell Description indication on
First Impression clear, unclear Fault

Intensity

light, medium, pronounced

Richness

Aromas

simple, developed, complex

Richness, aging

Aromas Type

floral, fruit, candy, vegetal, animal, food, spices, mineral, empyromatic

Region of origin
taste Description indication on
Sweetness dry off, dry medium, dry medium, medium sweet, sweet luscious  

Acidity

low, medium -, medium, medium +, high

Aging potential

Tanin (red wines) qty

low, medium -, medium, medium +, high

Aging potential

Tanin (red wines) nature

Astringency, silky

Age
Body light, medium -, medium, medium +, full Aging potential, quality
Alcohol low, medium -, medium, medium +, high, fortified Feeling of excess is a fault
Bubbles (sparkling wine) coarse, delicate Delicacy
Flavour intensity low, medium -, medium, medium +, high Richness, aging
Flavour types floral, fruit, candy, vegetal, animal, food, spices, mineral, empyromatic Region of origin, aging
Finish typefaces, coarse, balanced, harmonious, delicate, silky Quality, aging
Length short, medium -, medium, medium +, long Quality, aging

 

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