The Wine Insider's Guide

We've got some ways to help you step up your wine game

September 26, 2012

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Got $10? Buy the Only Corkscrew You'll Ever NeedA lot of technology is devoted to extracting corks from bottles. What you actually need is a $10 Pulltex waiter's corkscrew ($10, surlatable.com), which, once mastered, will make all other openers seem frivolous.

Decant Everything. No, Really

Wine is alive, and becomes more so-particularly aromatically--when it interacts with oxygen. That's what happens when you empty a bottle into a capacious glass vessel known as a decanter. Most people reach for one because the red they've pulled is too young and needs some softening via aeration, but you'd be surprised how much even a simple white will benefit from a splash. [#image: /photos/57daf34dbf7e91497a10dd22]||||||
Riedel's Cabernet Magnum decanter is a model of efficiency and elegance. ($68, williams-sonoma.com)

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Learn to Speak Sommelier__"STRUCTURE"__

Use instead of "body" to describe the size and mouthfeel of a wine. A high-acid wine is "firmly structured," while one with lots of tannins and/or alcohol is "powerfully structured."

"FINISH"
The duration of a wine's aftertaste (the longer the better). A wine with a persistent, pleasant aftertaste is said to have "length" (free bonus word!).

"MINERALITY"
Most often used to describe a certain stony, chalky flavor in wine. (Some believe that actual trace minerals travel from the soil to the grape.)

"BEAD"
Fancy word for the bubbles in Champagne, especially when assessing their quality (they should be small and lasting).

"NOSE"
An insider's way of saying "aroma." Next-level winespeak, as in "This Pinot has a fantastic nose."

Don't bring out the most complex wine at the end of the meal, when your palate (and everyone else's) is already battered.

You Don't Need Champagne to Own a Champagne BucketThere are gadgets designed to help you open, aerate, and do other things to wine; most of them are unnecessary. Cruise your local flea market (or eBay) for an antique chiller, one that holds multiple bottles. You can use it to ice your whites and rosés for a vino-filled centerpiece.

Chill out in style with the Scissor Cut Wine and Champagne cooler. ($55, crateandbarrel.com)

Bigger Is, in Fact, BetterMagnums seem to occupy opposite poles of the wine drinker's brain: The 1.5-liter bottles are viewed as holding either supermarket plonk or super-fancy collector wine. In reality, lots of great-quality, affordable wine is sold in magnums. They're proven to age more slowly than smaller formats, and there's simply no better way to handle an oversized Thanksgiving or other celebratory table in one fell swoop.

Sniffing it doesn't tell you anything the wine itself won't.

Cool Your Reds

A good bottle of red wine is like a beautiful steak: so hard to screw up, yet screwed up with alarming regularity. Pulling a bottle from that dusty rack on top of your fridge and serving it straight away is as unacceptable as grilling a rib eye medium-well. The ideal serving temperature for reds is around 65 degrees, much cooler than the average home. Put bottles of red inside the fridge for at least 30 minutes before serving.

It's Pronounced Tare-wah!

Five ways to hone your wine accent: TERROIR: tare-WAH
The French word for the "total natural environment" of a vine, including soil and site. The Frenchies swallow that "r" at the end; you should, too.

COTE DE NUITS: coat-duh-NWEE
The northern end of the Cote d'Or in Burgundy, where the most beguiling reds are made.

SANGIOVESE: san-joe-VAY-zay A Tuscan grape that's constantly mispronounced, despite the popularity of Chianti (which is made from Sangiovese).

GEWURZTRAMINER: geh-VURTZ-tra-mee-nur
With all its history and wine-geek cred, you might as well know how to say it.

SPATLESE: SHPATE-lay-zuh
The Germans take the prize with their funky terminology (this word is a term for an off-dry wine).

Relax. Broken Corks HappenA fine-mesh-sieve-and-funnel combo is indispensable, especially when opening older bottles. If you break the cork and don't think you can extract the remainder cleanly, first push whatever's stuck in the neck down into the bottle, pour the wine through the funnel into a decanter, and serve. The pros do it all the time.

When cork gets in your wine, pour it through a decanting funnel. ($20, williams-sonoma.com)

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Hold the glass by the stem, then swirl and sniff. The pros don't even need to take a swig before declaring the contents acceptable (or not).

Upgrade Your StemwareMyriad "grape-specific" glass shapes are available for the wine nerd, but you really only need these three styles.

The Workhorse (left)
Go with something big and durable. And, perhaps even more important, make it one that'll survive the dishwasher.
(Schott Zwiesel Cru Classic Chardonnay, $72 for six; williams-sonoma.com)

The Flute (center)
The occasions when you're opening Champagne at home are likely to be special ones--so give it a special glass.
(Luigi Bormioli "Vinoteque" flute, $8 each; bloomingdales.com)

The Showstopper (right)
Assuming you've got the patience for hand-washing, grab a set of large-bowled stems and bring them to the table for the main course with that bottle of premier cru you've been saving for the past six months. (Bormioli Rocco Restaurant White, $31 for four; casa.com)

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--David Lynch

(Credit: Photos by Christopher Griffith; Title Design by Dave Stevenson)