There are three other small details that are most easily overlooked when it comes to drinking red wine, and ignoring them can make a good glass of wine much less enjoyable. Many Chinese wine lovers, who have been learning about red wine for a long time, still don’t pay enough attention to these small details, probably because they are influenced by white wine and take it for granted that they ignore these “big things”.
This is one of the most important mistakes you should not make and can leave you with a very different judgement on a bottle of wine.
White wine does not require a wine temperature, there is no big difference. Red wine is very active physically and chemically, and there is a world of difference in taste between drinking at room temperature of 20 degrees and serving temperature of 12 degrees, and the better the wine, the greater the difference.
I. Serving temperature.
White wine has no requirements for serving temperature, but red wine is very sensitive to serving temperature, a difference of 5 degrees in temperature will change the performance of red wine by more than double. The serving temperature for red wine is between 13 and 15 degrees Celsius, and a little lower for dry white.
The taste of red wine at room temperature and red wine at 13 degrees Celsius can be compared to that of a woman before she removes her make-up. Because of our profession, we often taste a wine in several glasses at different temperatures, and we know it well.
When I first started in the industry, I thought it was pretentious when I saw foreigners using ice buckets to serve their red wines after opening, but in fact, for good wines, ice buckets are not superfluous at all.
There is an appropriate slang term for red wine drinking, “the two 20-minute rule”, which is very practical. 20 minutes before opening, put the wine in the freezer, the temperature of the freezer is 5 degrees Celsius, after 20 minutes, the wine temperature is exactly 12 degrees Celsius or less, you can take out and open the bottle directly.
If the wine has been in the fridge for a long time, the temperature will rise from 5 degrees Celsius in the freezer to a drinkable temperature of around 12 degrees Celsius 20 minutes after leaving the fridge. Here we talk about the second major thing that beginners tend to ignore in red wine, waking up.
Waking up.
White wine is very stable, a few hours after opening the bottle, there is little difference. The stability of red wine is very bad, after exposure to air, wine astringent substances tannic acid will be rapidly oxidized in the air, becoming relatively soft. This oxidation process is usually necessary before a fine red wine can be served, and some wines need to oxidise for a little longer, up to 40 minutes.
When you’re not sure, 20 minutes is the safest time to wake up a wine. The style of wine can also change dramatically between drinking right out of the bottle and waking up for 20 minutes, so for red wines over $100, make sure you wake up.
The process of waking up, is not complicated, to put it bluntly is to expand the liquid surface of red wine, so that it is in full contact with the air. So our usual cans of water, large water glasses and even root beer mugs can be used to wake up.
Third, good wine is not overnight.
After opening the bottle of red wine overnight taste decline quickly, good wine needs to be drunk as soon as possible, overnight equivalent to waking up excessive, no matter what kind of fresh corks you use, it is impossible to completely guarantee the stability of red wine after opening the bottle, the period of storage for a week.
This is not the same as white wine, Moutai will lose a little aroma after opening the bottle overnight, while red wine will be overly oxidised and lose its flavour when exposed to air after opening the bottle.
Fourth, food with meals.
This is not as important as the first two, if you use red wine to entertain the opposite sex, it is best to use a little dried bread or cheese to drink. Red wine is different from white wine, which rarely reacts with food, while red wine is more active in its chemical state.
Old wine lovers, after drinking a favourite red wine, always chase to buy a few, every three months or six months and then open a bottle, red wine before reaching the peak of the rising curve is very obvious, good wine every three months or six months and then drink, there must be new discoveries.
The aromas of white wine are complex, Moutai is said to have over 2,000 aromatic substances, so you are not fussy about the temperature of the wine you drink, 10 and 20 degrees Celsius.
The aroma of red wine is much simpler, with only a few dozen aromatic substances. Alcoholic beverages with simple aromas are more concerned with low temperature drinking, which is conducive to the concentrated release of aromas, and the low temperature makes the aroma of the wine more pure. Foreign spirits such as whisky, brandy and vodka are all about chilling before drinking.
Simply using your understanding of white wine and applying it to red wine is a mistake that Chinese people tend to make, which can greatly affect your tasting and understanding of red wine and seriously mislead your appreciation of a good bottle of wine.
Wine lovers, have you learnt?
