Wine Basics - Serving Wine
Perhaps more than any other beverage, the serving of wine tends to bring out the hidden poseur in us. There is a certain celebratory, haunting, ageless mysticism about the ritual of pouring fermented grape juice into a glass vessel that evokes great reverie and piety.
Not only are there plenty of opportunities to spill, spatter and dribble, but we also seem to know instinctively that we are participating in an act much larger than ourselves. Wine has symbolized so much heritage, culture and reverence over its history that it is treated in some places as akin to a religion. Insofar as there are many dos and don'ts for the wine snob extraordinaire that may have more to do with form than function, there are a few that are generally accepted more for comfort and sense than pomposity.
Opening Wine
This may not seem like a big deal, and with the proliferation of screw caps it is becoming less so. In fact, the advent of the screw cap has invited many changes to the necessary steps of wine service and the tools required. Tradition and romance are interwoven into the lore of the occasion and nowhere does this occur more frequently than when wine is the centerpiece. In the enjoyment of a bottle of wine lovingly selected and proudly yet modestly presented, the ceremony begins with the peeling of the foil and ends with the liquid's first kiss of life. Screw caps may be environmentally responsible, but the anticipatory expectation and grand gesture, the prophetic insight and the timeless anecdote, the foreplay if you will, bears the ultimate sacrifice for the sake of modern convenience. A way of life is the cork; a barrier to instant gratification is the screw cap. But you don't need an opener.
Should you be fortunate enough to uncover one of these relics of the past, there are a few required steps that are both form and function. If you are serving in a restaurant, the bottle must stay on the table, and you should make sure than at the very least, you have a high-quality waiter's corkscrew with a serrated blade that is preferably double hinged.
Presenting the Wine
Before you think about opening and pouring the wine, however, you must present the wine. Although this might seem like pretentious overkill- after all, the Queen is not likely at the table- you really do need to show that the bottle you are holding is in fact the bottle ordered. Your customer is spending likely what he or she feels to be good money on this bottle and regardless of how much it costs, it deserves special treatment. Each and every bottle of Chateau Pete's Garage merits the same respect, veneration and care offered a Chateau Petrus.
The customary way to show the bottle is to hold the bottle in a napkin with the base in your bottom hand and the neck in your top hand with the label of the bottle facing outward for the customer to see and confirm as the correct selection.
Keep in mind that opening and pouring still wines and sparkling wines require different rules.
Still Table and Dessert Wines
Removing the Foil
With the blade of your opener, cut the foil capsule just beneath the second lip of the bottle all the way around the bottle neck and slice upward. Cutting below the first lip often leaves a shredded foil and jagged edges. This has no visual appeal and ensures that the wine will come in contact with the foil when poured, or that you will cut yourself on the edges of the foil, which hurts and gets blood on the bottle or in the wine. Once the foil is cut all the way around, remove the capsule completely, put it in your pocket and wipe the top of the cork and mouth of the bottle with a damp cloth. This ensures that any residue on the top of the cork or at the top of the mouth of the bottle is wiped away.
Opening the Bottle
Insert the point of the worm of the corkscrew (the coiled part) as close to the center of the cork as possible and push down so that the corkscrew is imbedded slightly into the cork, and then give it three to three and a half turns, being as careful as possible to not "break the mirror"; put the corkscrew right through the bottom of the cork. This becomes much easier with practice and with a good opener that has a double-hinged flange (always recommended), you don't have to go too far in. Holding the neck of the bottle and supporting the flange of the corkscrew at the same time, begin to lever the cork out slowly trying your best to keep the cork at 90° to the bottle. Pulling the cork out at any other angle tends to break the cork off in the neck, ensuring that you have lovely little cork fragments floating in each glass poured, which may add to the body, but certainly not the flavour, or worse, the remnant of the cork ends up in the bottle. You'll be moving that one aside and starting over, which is guaranteed to impress. Once you have the cork most of the way out, remove it carefully twisting the last little bit with your hand until you hear the kiss sound. Once open, wipe inside the neck with a damp cloth to further remove any sediment or cork fragments that may be present. You should have a side plate of your own near you covered with a napkin on which you can put the cork once removed and checked by the guest who ordered the wine. You are now ready to pour.
If the closure is a screw cap, give it a good, hard twist and repeat the above without presenting the cap to the guest. Chances are that the wine will be fresh, but you never know. Cork taint can infect wine by more than just the cork. Unsanitary winemaking equipment or bacteria in the barrel or the racking room can infect the wine.
Pouring Glassware
Pouring the Wine
There are fewer procedural guidelines to pouring the wine than for the opening of the wine, but this is more for the safety of your guests than ritual form. To start with, holding the bottle should be done via either the punt, the indentation in the bottom of the bottle, if it is deep enough, or by the preferred method, by the body of the bottle, never the neck. It is too easy to pour too much with little control when pouring by the neck, since the bottle is out of balance with that grip.
Before pouring the wine, it is critical to test it to ensure that it is clean. You may be asked to do this yourself, as is customary in most establishments that serve fine wine. Pour just an ounce to confirm the state of the wine. Once confirmed, you may pour. Always start with the person who ordered the wine, presenting them the cork to assure legitimacy of the bottle, and pouring them a little to nose and taste for their permission to pour the wine.
Pouring discs are nice to have but are really only appropriate in clinical situations or tasting environments, not in a restaurant setting. So you'll just have to be careful when pouring, especially red wine. Always pour from the right side of the guest and start with the ladies at the table. Fill the glass half-way at most, depending on the number of guests to ensure that everybody receives some. It reduces the likelihood of spillage and also offers each guest an opportunity to confirm the quality and character of the wine for themselves. A glass overfilled will not reveal any aromatic character and will slosh when swirled.
Sparkling Table Wines
Removing the Foil
The vast majority of sparkling wine foils come with a pull-tab since the wire mesh surrounding the mushroom cork makes using a corkscrew blade difficult. Therefore, pull the tab all the way around the neck and remove the foil.
Opening the Bottle
Once removed, twist the tabs of the wire mesh to loosen it, keeping one hand on top of the mesh at all times to support the cork, as it is under tremendous pressure, and if released will impact anything nearby at 60 mph. At the very least, being struck with the flying cork will hurt; at the worst it could inflict permanent damage. Quickly remove the mesh, and placing a napkin in one hand back over the cork, hold the bottle at a 45 degree angle away from your guests and twist the bottle rather than the cork. The pressure behind the cork will force it out, so be sure to grip it firmly and not let it out too quickly, as you're sure to spray mousseaux all over yourself, if not everyone else. Twisting the bottle rather than the cork ensures that you have the cork under control at all times.
Propriety suggests that you don't want to open a bottle of sparkling wine to loud, self-induced fanfare - no loud popping noises - but wine is fun and sparkling wine the most of all. Hence somewhere between the soft kiss and assertive pop is a nice compromise. There's celebration in the pop and sparkling wine is nothing if not celebratory.
Pouring the Wine
Once again, you want to make sure that the wine is clean. Pour yourself a small amount to ensure that the wine is still sparkling and it passes the aroma test. Your guests may insist on doing the checking and you should oblige, making sure that you pour some for your own assessment, just in case. Once confirmed, start again with the ladies, pouring just enough so that the mousseaux reaches the top of the Champagne flute so that everyone gets some and so that you don't spill wine all over the table; it's very easy to do with sparkling wine as it can froth over the glass very quickly. Sparkling wine bottles, especially Champagne bottles, have extra deep punts to increase bottle strength and as such, are easier to handle from that point. It also illustrates a slight difference in the style, allowing for more show and elegance. Should anyone ask why they are drinking from flutes as opposed to the shallow and wide Champagne glass made popular in '50s Hollywood movies, let them know that the flute style ensures that the bubbles will last much longer with less surface area of the wine exposed to oxygen. Sparkling wine is all about the bubbles, without which it's just a flat, high acid, low alcohol.