Practical advice

  1. It is better too cold than too warm – it is always better if the wine has too low temperature than too high one. Too cold wine will reach good temperature after a few minutes in a room, but too warm one will smell alcohol until the end. What is more, the tannins and acidity will unpleasantly sting. Naturally, too cold wine will not give much pleasure, but at least will not be disgusting.
  2. It is better early than too late – usually it is better to open the bottle 30 minutes before tasting it. Of course it does not concern all wines, but there are not many wines which within half an hour will lose something from their bouquet. On the contrary, most of them will benefit from it. There are bottle, which are worth opening even a few hours or a day earlier, so that it can “open” after the contact with oxygen. However, let us not deceive ourselves, most open wines we drink everyday will not stay longer than half a day.
  3. It is better to DRINK than to drink – if we drink wine, it is better to spill it in the mouth than to quickly swallow a small amount of it. During the tasting, usually a small amount of wine is poured, so instinctively we try to divide it into a few sips. Nothing worse. It is better to have one portion, but more satisfying, than a few swallows but insipid. Small sip will not allow us to feel all flavours and nuances of wine, also the finish will suffer.
  4. A clean and elegant wine-glass – a glass should be held by its stem. The bowl should stay clean, without dirt from fingers. On a good glass, owing to its transparency, our fingerprints will be seen immediately. What is more, holding the bowl is simply of little elegance.
  5. Wine may be slurped – it is one of few savoir-vivre rules, which can be broken during a tasting. Wine, still oxygenized in the mouth, can pay back by its more pleasant taste and flavour. However, I do not recommend doing it in non-wine company because it can be received negatively.
  6. Mixing, mixing, mixing – we mix wine so that it gets oxygen and gives the flavour. By mixing we can scent normally hidden aromas. The only thing we should pay attention to is not to pour it on ourselves or our companions. 
  7. Toasts – yes, but without clinking – because it can happen that the only thing which is left is the stem. Nowadays the wine-glasses are made from very thin glass and are extraordinarily fragile to any aggressive behaviour from our part. The wine-glass should be treated like the best friend. All in all, it is the glass which gives us so much fun.
  8. Wine needs time – put aside, oxygenize, have a bite to eat, chill, warm up, etc. These tricks can be used when the wine disappoints us at the first moment. There is nothing worse than the awareness that we missed great wine only because we were impatient.
  9. People are different – wines are different too, so sometimes we can be surprised when somebody brings us a theoretically outstanding bottle and it turns out that it does not suit us at all. Fortunately we have different tastes and there can be many discrepancies in this field.