There is a romance to opening a bottle of wine with a cork …..I LOVE the efficiency of the screw top bottle and absolutely know there are some WONDERFUL wines in those bottles.There is nothing more fabulous then selecting a wine for the occasion whether coming home from work, having a dinner party or just having family and friends over to share an occasion or just to hangout. To me, it gives me pleasure as to what I select for each and every occasion.
How do you open a bottle of wine??
- Use a corkscrew with a knife
- Score the seal just below the bump in the bottle at the top…….the tradition of this goes back when the seal was lead and hence when pouring wine you did not want the wine to be tainted or touch this lead seal!
- You place the screw in center of cork and twist, do not twist the bottle, place the lever on the edge of the bottle and pull…………….LOVE the sound of the pop when opening the bottle.
- The cork is then presented, usually placed on the table in front of the person who ordered the wine. They can look at it, feel it, inspect it, smell it or ignore it, up to them. In the olden days, inspecting a cork was one way to ensure a wine?s authenticity. Sometimes it gives clues about how the wine was stored hopefully one end is damp and it’s still a little spongy when you squeeze it, not dry and crumbly. You can take the cork with you as a souvenir if you wish, as I sometimes do. I’ve also seen servers present a screw cap, which is OK with me.
- Next, a taste of wine is poured typically to the person who ordered the bottle. though a server might ask who?d like to try it. If I’m the one tasting, I swirl and sip (or sometimes, just swirl and sniff), then give a smile and nod to let them know it?s OK, or speak up if I think there is something wrong. I’m looking for a possibly flawed bottle either oxidized or showing signs of TCA, a contaminant that can make a wine smell and taste like wet cardboard. This is also a chance to check on the temperature of the wine, and I might ask for the bottle to be kept on ice. This is also the point when there might be a discussion about decanting.
- The rest of the table is served before my own glass is topped off. The best wine servers know not to fill the glasses too high, giving plenty of headspace for the wine to aerate and for me to swirl without sloshing.
- The first pour from the bottle … this is one of my favorite sounds…the glug glug is music to my ears.? I do believe when I die at my celebration of life I would LOVE for everyone to pour wine to each other at the same time.? It will be like a symphony is playing and hearing this I will be ready to rest in heaven!
To me leaving the cork on the table signifies generosity of hospitality!? It is a pleasure to have you share our wine and be our guests… pouring the wine then putting the cork back in more or less says “drink up and limiting the experience of hospitality”
Cheers!!!
