Wine Education with Mr. Bill
So you need a bottle of wine right now. Friends are on the way over. You go to the cellar, rack, closet, under the bed, or wherever you keep a few bottles stashed. You grab a nice red and head to the kitchen, open the bottle, and grab some glasses. You pour a little bit in your glass. Take a sip. Uh-oh. You didn’t look close enough at the wine and opened one before it’s ready. You don’t serve that steak or casserole until they are properly cooked. The coach doesn’t put a player into the football game until he knows the play book and is fully ready. Wine is sometimes the same. Granted most wine is like a box of cookies; ready to drink when you get it. But some of it (to include some whites) needs time to mature and show it’s best. Just like kids grow, change, and mature. So if you make this mistake, what do you do?
There are several options. All is not lost for sure. You can use one off the many types of aerators there are. These are designed to give an aggressive aeration to the wine. This helps to soften tannins and open the wine up. No aerator? No problem. Pour the wine into a decanter, tea pitcher, or any larger container. This is not as aggressive as the aerator but still starts the same process. When putting on wine dinners I have even had the restaurant give me two clean beer pitchers. I poured the wine in one and then back and forth. The wines gets the idea after a few times. Before serving just pour it back into the bottle.
On a picnic and all you have is the bottle and glasses? Pour the wine into the glasses as soon as you can. Leave lots of room in the glass to allow for swirling. This will work too, just not quite as fast.
You could also put the cork back in the bottle and save it a day or two until it opens up. That’s assuming that you did pour some out so there is now some air in the bottle to help open it up. It also assumes you have a more suitable backup.
As always, we are ready to answer any questions you have about wines you have or are planning to purchase.