Wine Glass Info

At first, before I understood the importance of a wine decanter, I liked them for their sheer beauty There are so many styles and shapes, functional decanters and not very functional decanters.
It was only after I had a fine collection did I find out the functionality of a wine decanter. (Yes, I was nieve.)
A wine that is younger than ten years should be uncorked and decanted for at least an hour to let it aerate to ready the nose and palate with the wines full potential. If you never have done this , try it out to see for your self what a difference it will make. Just remember sometimes nothing can help a lousy bottle of wine.

An older wine needs to only be open and poured. Really, that’s it. I like to let mine air for a couple of minutes but that would be all.

It’s nice to have such a fine collection of decanters; they come in handy when the guests show up with their favorite bottle of wine. I like the line up!

The Wine Cohort

For serious wine drinkers, a wine bar or corner in their homes would be a great idea. A wall mounted wine rack is recommended if space is limited, yet you would still want to display those vintage wine bottles.

Wine is not just a beverage that is served on special occasions. It can actually be the beverage of choice after a tiring day at work, or to complement a dish. In fact, it is said that drinking a glass of wine everyday can be good for the heart.

In my opinion, a wine bottle sealed with a cork tastes better than wine that is sealed otherwise. Perhaps the cork adds to the flavor and aging process of a wine, I am not certain.

But what I do know is that a wine corkscrew is a much-needed tool to dislodge a cork from a wine bottle. I recall one instance when I was forced to pop a cork out without a corkscrew and it just led to disaster. That was totally embarrassing.

If you’ve been invited to a housewarming party, wine makes a fantastic gift. It’s also a nice gesture to bring a bottle of wine when you’ve been invited to a dinner party. But any time you have to transport wine, it’s a harrowing experience. Letting it roll on the backseat of a car can lead to a broken bottle, a lost night’s worth of wine, and a terrible mess. Even having somebody hold a bottle of wine is tricky, because there’s no guarantee the bottle doesn’t slip right out of their fingers.

To make transporting wine a little bit easier, try a leather wine tote. These carrying cases are designed specifically with wine in mind. The exterior of the case is a hard plastic, meaning it will protect the wine inside from bumps and jolts. In order to cushion the bag from any potential shock, it is also lined with suede.

The totes are usually designed to carry anywhere from one to three bottles of wine, and they are secured internally by elastic straps. And the entire bag is finished off with an adjustable shoulder strap.

So, transporting wine just got a little less stressful!

When you’re throwing a dinner party, it’s easy to forget little details like slipping the champagne or white wine into the fridge before your guests arrive. So if you hear the doorbell ring and realize you have a counter full of lukewarm champagne, you don’t have to worry—so long as your freezer has a champagne cooler.A champagne cooler is essentially a frozen ice pack that can be slipped over any champagne or wine bottle. The “ice jacket” will cool the bottle in as little as five minutes.

Some people opt to chill wines in a champagne bucket, but this takes much longer than a champagne cooler. Plus, it makes the exterior of the bottle wet, which can result in water rings on wood dining room tables. With the champagne cooler, there won’t be any water, and there won’t be any mess.

These devices are sturdy and durable, and as such, they can be reused often. When you’re done with the party, just throw the cooler back into the freezer for the next event.

Sometimes in buying a younger wine, I will find one that will make me shutter. It has a very harsh finish; the balance is not there yet. The question is will a wine like this become any better with time. I think it depends on where the wine has originated. If that vintner puts out fabulous aged wine then I believe in the weakness of the very young wine. I have taken such an experience to the test and even after just four years of sitting, it has become a beautiful wine. I knew it would. I could tell it just needed time. The longer this vintage sits in the wine rack, up to a point, the better it will become. I look forward to drinking it in a few more years to see how it is doing. I will let you know.

Purple Lips

I have learned over the course of the year, how much all the vintners talk among themselves about the weather and how it is affecting the grapevines, the grapes, and each vineyard. I also have learned how I take these same vintners for granted. These people always appeared to me as the elite, with their grand vineyards and picturesque estates, however I am very wrong. As it is said, “things are not always the way they appear”. The vintner is a very hard working, dedicated, farmer of grapes. I never ever thought about them being farmers, but they are. Yet these very dedicated people are the ones that help to bring you your favorite memories, with your favorite people, in your favorite place.

This year in California, after staying up night after night, listening to the howling wind and pounding rains, wondering if the roof would blow off, they have watched their best vines wash away in the January and February flooding rains. They fought to save their grapes against an uncommon frost until the very end of April, only to loose the first formed buds. They hoped for warm weather to start a new crop and their prayers were heard, the heat came and came and came.  It became incredibly hot. Record breaking hot. Do not forget that brush fires go with the heat. Thick smoke settled over the wine valleys draping them like a thick cloud of fog which made breathing most difficult. Nevertheless, the weather began to cooperate and with their hard work, the grapes grew in spite of it all.There is a small crop of grapes to meet the need for the 2008 year. I hope God has blessed this year’s grapes. The blood, sweat, and tears of the growers, in the California valleys, are in that wine. I hear it should be an excellent year for California wine. When the time comes to open a 2008 vintage, I will think about you the vintners. I will never take you for granted again, be it in California or anywhere else in the world that grapes are grown and wine is made. I lift my wine glass to all of you, thank you, for what you do. Thank you, for some of the best memories in my life. Here is to a good year ahead.
 
The Wine Cohort

The Peugeot “Les Impitoyable” No4

I have had the opportunity to observe the chatter through out a certain champagne crowd. After observing for a few months their comparison of the functional value of different champagne glasses, I have been very amazed by their fortitude to keep going in this contest and how many hours all these people put into this comparison to come up with their data.

Although they had great fun, this was very serious. When you are drinking a 1996 Tattinger Comtes, you want to experience all the pleasures of the palate, fragrances, and bubbles that this great champagne has to offer. They all had their favorites. Peugeots “Les Impitoyable No. 4” and Riedles “Sommelier Champagne” glasses went to war with one against the other. Like a good horse race, this indeed became an outstanding competition. The No.4 took the lead, then the Riedle pulled ahead and then the No.4 was about to take the grand prize, when a very elegant lady of a glass ran right by. Her name? The Zalto Champagne glass, it took top honors. She is a star, standing out in her delicate beauty alone. Some of the champagne crowd walks around at home with a No.4 in one hand and a Zalto champagne glass in the other just to experience the best of both glasses.

The Zalto Denk’Art Champagne Glass

The Les Impitoyables No.4 boldly brings out the delicate aromas of fine champagne and you do not miss a thing on the palate. The Zalto brings out both the fine bouquet and gently accentuates the taste. As for the bubbles, Les Impitoyable took grand prize. The bubbles “twirl like a tornado!” I for one am caught up in watching the bubbles go up in the Zalto. It is indeed fascinating. Be careful if you are on a date, they might think they are being ignored. For those who have yet to be acquainted with a Les Impitoyable No.4 or a Zalto, they should, you will not believe the difference.

Wine glasses are wine glasses however champagne glasses are something else! I suggest you try these out for yourselves. It is a lot of fun, AND you will not be sorry.

The Wine Cohort

Over time, wine has been consumed via every form of vessel from a lead chalice to a paper cup. They all served the purpose, which was basically, to get the wine to ones lips. In the past couple of centuries as the wines have become much more sophisticated and refined, so has the glassware from which it is sipped. What has lagged behind is the awareness of the public on the importance of using wine glasses, which enhance the presentation of the wine itself. Restaurant owners, who refuse to use proper wine glasses when serving wine, have exacerbated the problem.

Wine presents not just as taste, but also as a combination of aroma, texture, taste and finish. Improper glassware can diminish all aspects of a good wine. The right glassware can enhance the qualities of a good wine so much that you might not believe it is the same wine. 

Over time, we at WineGlassInfo.com hope to explore not only this issue but also any issue that concerns wine or increases ones pleasure with the wine experience.  

The word origin of ‘wine’ is hard to trace.  The word itself is considered a wanderwort, which is a German word used to describe any word that spreads across different languages and cultures.  Wanderworts are generally items and descriptions that were a part of trade. 

Wine itself was an item that was heavily traded in the past.  Just like wine lovers today that seek out rare and exotic vintages, traders of the past acquired wine from different regions using the same trade routes as they would for spices and gems.  Wine decanters could be found in the homes of the most prominent of these traders.