Ask the Pros for Help

Ordering wine in a restaurant can, and should be, a painless experience.  There are only a few ideas to consider when undertaking this often-uncomfortable situation.  A little knowledge of the do’s and don’ts will go a long way towards alleviating any anxiety with the ritual of wine service.  As with any dining experience, a sense of confidence in the service and food provided is necessary for a truly relaxed, enjoyable occasion.  You should feel assured that your dietary needs, personal tastes, health, and financial security are at the forefront of the establishments’ considerations.
Let’s say you are in a given restaurant for the first time, and are familiar with many of the wines offered.  Having chosen your entree, you select a nice wine to accompany your meal.  Now is the time to start ascertaining the level of service you are about to receive: 

• The wine should be served timely.
• The wine should be served with the proper glassware.
• The wine should be served at the correct temperature.
• The wine should be served in an appropriate manner. 

Pointed questions regarding your selection can help determine the experience level of your server.  To my mind, a great pleasure of dining out is resting some decisions upon the expertise of the professionals who handle their particular dining elements day in and day out. 

• Feel free to ask for help.  
• Describe what characteristics you enjoy in a wine rather than selecting by region, vineyard or variety. 

With a given level of confidence in the staff, you will be able to experience new tastes with the assurance of a great dining experience.

Ready to Order?

It is rarely a good idea to order wine without looking at the list or asking the price.  Many are the times a guest has said, “I love Mouton-Rothschild, do you have a bottle?” only to choke when they see an eight hundred dollar price tag.  Know what you are getting into, and, while affordability should never be your only consideration, don’t be afraid to ask the price of anything.
Should you ask your server or sommelier: “What is your favorite wine?”  You may get this response: “Well, what am I eating?  What time of year is it?  The occasion?   Who am I with?”  Most experienced wine connoisseurs will have many personal favorites.   Instead, ask what they may suggest with the meal you have selected, given the tastes you prefer. 

Wine Presentation and Service

Wine service should proceed in a similar manner every time you order:

The Right Wine?

First, the wine bottle will be presented to you un-opened. At this point you are checking to make sure the wine is what you selected: 

• Correct grape,
• Correct vineyard,
• Correct vintage. 

The Cork Check

Next, the bottle will be opened and the cork presented to whomever chose the wine.  There is no need to smell the cork.  With the cork you are looking for one thing: integrity.  The following signs are not conclusive, but would beg a little closer scrutiny of the wine:

• The cork is soft and spongy
• The cork crumbles upon removal
• There is a pronounced stripe running longitudinally along the cork

If any of these signs are present, there is a higher probability the wine will be faulted.

The Discernment

Next, a small portion of wine will be poured for the person who ordered it (for our purposes, the host.)  This wine is not poured as a taste test, but rather, as an opportunity for the guest to discern any faults in the wine:  You should look at:

• See the color – is it what you expected? 
• Smell it – Anything moldy? – Vinegary? – Does the wine smell bruised or rotten? 
• Taste it – Does it taste the way it smells? 

An experienced diner never languishes over the discernment of wine – a connoisseur will take seconds to determine if a particular bottle is good. 

Given that the host chose the wine and the wine is un-faulted, the bottle should not be rejected.  All sommeliers have entertained a guest who is intent upon opening six bottles of wine only to decide which they like best - not the purpose of the tasting.  An exception to this rule:  If a guest states the characteristics of the wines he or she enjoys, and the server makes a recommendation, and the wine does not fit the preferred wine profile, then it is okay to send the wine back, even if it is sound.

The Service

Given a positive response to the initial inspection, the server will start to pour your wine. 

• Wine service starts with the lady to the left of the host.
• Service proceeds clockwise to the rest of the women.
• Lastly, service continues clockwise for the men, serving the host – male or female – last.

An exception to this rule:  If the table has more than eight guests, wine service proceeds clockwise, from the hosts left, not differentiating for male or female, serving the host last.

Enjoy!

Most important – dining in general, and wine specifically - should be enjoyed.  These are singular moments of your life’s experience and are irreplaceable.  Anything detracting from your pleasure should not be repeated, and every great meal accorded the respect of a once in a lifetime experience.  Salute!  
 

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Wine is stored in a variety of ways - from the initial picking of grapes to when the bottle is tipped above your glass.  The ephemeral beauty of wine is delicate and temperamental, thus, an understanding of how best to coddle this fleeting art form is of benefit to those who would enjoy a perfect glass.

In The Beginning...

In the vineyard grapes are picked and transported to the winery in a variety of ways.  Some are mechanically harvested into large trucks and delivered in bulk to the winery.  Some are hand picked into small tubs and attended to immediately upon arrival.  There are even grapes picked in the cool of night, placed in small tubs, and processed with dawns first light.  All of these choices have an impact on the final product.  Once the grapes are delivered, more decisions are made.  Should the wine be fermented in stainless steel, concrete vats, aged oak vats, or in small new oak barrels?  How long should the wine be held before releasing it?  Should the wine be aged in oak, stainless steel, on the lees, in the bottle?  These decisions have a dramatic effect on the wine produced, and should give some indication of what to expect.

Off to Live the Life of Wine

Okay, the bottle has left the winery.  It’s on the shelf in a liquor store.  What now?  The cardinal rule - heat and light are the enemies of wine.  Some wines are compromised before we have the opportunity to screw them up ourselves. Typically, an inexpensive wine, made to be drank young, is not a risk that merits much investigation.  However, if you are investing in an expensive wine - crafted to age for years - some knowledge of who imported or shipped the wine and how it may have been handled should be requisite prior to purchase.  It’s always a good idea to speak with the wine store manager, who can give you the distributors’ contact information, or to research the wine on-line.  If you plan to cellar a bottle, it’s important to know the wine has been handled well.  Did it get too hot on a long ocean voyage?  Has it sat in the sun on a shelf for a couple of months?  Was it stored upright for an extended period of time?  When investing in wine it’s best to know the answers to these questions.
With regard to personal storage, every wine wants to return to its’ roots.  A cool, dark cabinet performs well, and, if possible, a controlled humidity of sixty-five or seventy percent is ideal.  Wine bottles should be stored on their sides to ensure the cork is well saturated and swollen - creating a tight fit with the neck of the bottle.  Wine should be stored under stable conditions, without tempeture, light, or humidity variation.  Essentially, the closer you get to recreating the conditions of a grape vines’ roots - under ground, dark, moist, constant - the more cellaring will reward you.

Wine bottling and corking techniques also have a role to play.  True with many things; judge the product, not the package.  A fancy bottle can hide a bourgeois juice and countless great wine comes with inauspicious wraps.  Yes, even boxed wine can be a good option.  When boxing wine, less capital is diverted toward packaging and more funds (possibly) allocated toward crafting a better juice.  Additionally the foil bladder inside the box collapses around any remaining wine, reducing oxidation, and increasing the wines’ overall longevity.  Follow your own tastes, but for an everyday option, don’t rule out the box.

Put a Cork in It? Or Screw it Up?

To cork or not to cork?  This remains the question.  There are passionate experts on both sides of this issue.  Certainly with some cork trees nearing endangered status, it behooves us to consider sustainability.  Additionally, somewhere between five and ten percent of wine is faulted due to bacteria in the cork itself, not only a significant waste, but also a rude surprise when your last bottle of a rare vintage is undrinkable.  To mitigate this many wines are now capped with a screw top or Stelvin closer.  This reduces the likelihood of a tainted wine, costs less than cork, and eases some of the burden on cork trees.  Stelvin closers do, however, seem a little less graceful when opened, and for many, have connotations of plonk (a wine of poor quality.)  This may have been the case in the past; it is not today.  Many great wines are capped with the Stelvin closer.  Another new stopper is the glass lock, simply - a glass cork with a rubber seal.  Perhaps a touch more classy, the glass lock does allow for a little more opening ritual.  When a wine is designed to age in bottle, the cork issue becomes more complicated.  Prevailing thought has always held some transfer of oxygen, through the cork, was necessary for the wine to mature and develop its’ bouquet.  While the jury is out - it is likely to be some time before you see Chambertin with a screw top.

The Final Solution: Drink it!

When storing an opened bottle of wine you have a few options.  The goal is to slow the rate of oxidation.  Try a wine pump - designed to remove oxygen from the bottle, creating a partial vacuum, or try a wine preservative - essentially inert gas that will blanket the juice and seal out oxygen.  Failing either of these, put the opened wine in the refrigerator, and yes, even your reds.  Lowering a wines’ temperature also slows oxidation, just be sure to pull your red wine out an hour or so before serving.
Given a little information, wine storage is intuitive and straightforward, requiring little more than a cool cupboard, rarely opened.  Box, cork, Stelvin and glass lock closers all have their place in today’s market, though they may tell less about the quality of the wine than they have in the past.  Having passed through many loving hands, the bottle you hold is entrusted to your care.  A gentle touch is usually rewarded.  Remember – all wines long for their roots.  Cheers.

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