Posts Tagged ‘Serving wine’
Santa Claus is Coming to Town – Here’s Your List
…Making a list and checking it twice! I posted a wine tip earlier this year, and thought that it would be a useful and helpful piece to share again for your holiday party planning.
1. What’s considered a “full” glass of wine? Answer: About a ½ glass. A half full glass allows the swirling folks to play “merry-go-round” with their wine.
2. How many bottles of wine should you purchase for a full evening of entertaining? Answer: Assuming you have a bunch of wine drinkers – at least 1 bottle (750ml) per person. Note: You gotta know your crowd and plan accordingly. If you’ve got guests coming that you know can throw’em back; best to buy more wine or be prepared to holler “Last Call! But you’re welcome to stay for a cup of Nescafé Crème de Menthe coffee…”
3. What’s the approximate number of servings in a standard size (750ml) bottle of wine? Answer: 5. The pour is a tad light at 5. But generally speaking, you get about 4-5 glasses per 750ml bottle depending on the generosity of the person pouring the wine.
4. How many calories are in a glass of wine? Answer: A standard bartender’s pour is considered to be 5 ounces. The approximate number of calories based on a 5 oz pour is between 100 and 150 calories.
5. How many different glasses do I need? Answer: 1 red and 1 white wine glass. Or, just one great all-purpose glass. If you like the bubbly stuff or wear an ascot and a smoker’s jacket, then you’ll need a Champagne flute, a brandy snifter, or maybe even a cocktail glass too!
6. How long do I need to fully chill a white wine in the fridge before serving it? Answer: About 2 hours.
7. How long do I need to fully chill a red wine in the fridge before serving it? Answer: None. Most red wines should be served at room temperature unless you’re dealing with a “cross-dresser” red wine like Beaujolais or Pinot Noir. It all depends if you prefer to serve these particular types of reds at room temperature or with a little chill on them.
8. What’s the best storage temperature for wine to not freeze or “cook” it? Answer: Generally speaking an ideal storage temperature would be somewhere in your home that is constantly between 50-55 degrees Fahrenheit. That’s why the basement makes for an ideal cellar.
9. How many days do leftover wines keep? Answer: Generally speaking, about 2 days. White wines tend to last a little bit longer than reds. I would say that red wines should be finished the day after opening it. If the wine comes in a box, you’ve got a month to suck it all down.
10. How many different bottle openers do I need? Answer: One that is sturdy and capable of opening several bottles over the course of an evening. Any wine bottle with a cork enclosure can be opened with a decent and relatively inexpensive Spinhandle Screwpull
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Wine Tip – Popping Open the Bubbly
The Way To Pop Open Up A Bottle Of The Bubbly Stuff
I’m not sure if I should be giving advice on how to open up a bottle of bubbly since my wife usually does it. She fears that I may hurt myself or someone around me.
Opening up a bottle of bubbly always feels special to me. Maybe it’s because we don’t do it very often or maybe I just enjoy the unique “pop” or “puff” sound that it makes when you open a bottle. Whatever it is, it’s a beverage that calls for attention at that moment in time. However, it also calls for your attention to be safe while opening it. Friedrich Balck of Clausethal Technical University in northwest Germany found that a vigorously shaken bottle of Champagne, with a pressure of 35 psi (2.5 bars), expelled its cork at 24.8 miles per hour (40 kilometres per hour). Not that you plan on doing this in your dining room, but you get the idea that a champagne cork can pop out with great speed! With the steps below, you can open the bubbly stuff with confidence and put away your safety goggles.
Step 1 – Chill it. Get the bottle ice cold. The colder the bottle is, the less pressure it will have when opening.
Step 2- Protect and check yourself. You never know when a cork going to cut loose. Always point the bottle in a safe direction and keep your thumb over the cork.
Step 3- Peel the foil and unwrap the wire cage covering the cork. Always be aware that the cork may fly-have your thumb ready just in case.
Step 4- Take a towel or cloth napkin and slip it over the neck of the bottle. The towel will help you grip the cork and catch it in the event it that it decides to blow.
Step 5 – Hold the bottle at a slight angle, grip the cork firmly with the cloth towel or napkin. Then, with your other hand, turn the base of the bottle slowly in one direction. Turning the bottle is safer and more effective than trying to yank the cork out.
Wine Tip – By the Numbers
Wine by the numbers Q & A
1.) What’s considered a “full” glass of wine? Answer: About a ½ glass. A half full glass allows the swirling folks to play “merry-go-round” with their wine.
2.) How many bottles of wine you should plan per guest during a full evening of entertaining? Answer: At least 1 bottle (750ml) per person. If it’s my sister-in-law Linda, we triple it! :) So know your crowd and plan accordingly.
3.) What’s the approximate number of servings in a standard size (750ml) bottle of wine? Answer: 5. The pour may be a tad light at 5. But you get about 4-5 glasses per 750ml bottle depending on the generosity of the person pouring the wine.
4.) How many calories are in a glass of wine? Answer: A standard bartender’s pour is considered to be 5 ounces. The approximate number of calories based on a 5 oz pour is between 100 and 150 calories.
5.) How many different glasses do I need? Answer: 1 red and 1 white wine glass. Or just one great all-purpose glass. If you like the bubbly stuff or wear an ascot and a smoker’s jacket, then you’ll need a Champagne flute and a brandy snifter or “cocktail glass” too!
6.) How long do I need to fully chill a white wine in the fridge before serving it? Answer: About 2 hours.
7.) How long do I need to fully chill a red wine in the fridge before serving it? Answer: None. Most red wines should be served at room temperature unless you’re dealing with a “cross- dresser” red wine like Beaujolais or Pinot Noir. It all depends if you prefer to serve these particular types of reds at room temperature or with a little chill on them.
8.) What’s the best storage temperature for wine to not freeze or cook? Answer: Generally speaking an ideal storage temperature would be somewhere in your home that is constantly between 50-55 degrees Fahrenheit. That’s why the basement makes for an ideal cellar.
9.) How many days do leftover wines keep? Answer: Again, generally speaking about 2 days. White wines tend to last a little bit longer than reds. I would say that red wines should be finished the day after opening it. That’s why I wish more wines used the bag-in-box system, it stays fresh much longer than a bottle. Box wines can stay fresh for a month or more.
10.) How many different bottle openers do I need? Answer: 1. Any wine bottle with a cork can be opened with a decent Spinhandle Screwpull
Wine Tip – Temperature
What’s the right temperature to serve wine?
A friend of mine recently asked me to address this question. It’s an excellent question, but one that’s a bit subjective and sort of difficult to answer quickly. In my opinion, every “varietal” or type of grape has its own optimal serving temperature. Additionally, your own preference may be to drink all of your wines either warm or chilled.
If you are anything like me, you stick your white wines in the refrigerator and get them ice cold. The wine experts say that this practice is not the right thing to do because a typical refrigerator temperature is usually in the high 30s or low 40s. They say that this temperature is too cold for most white wines. A white wine’s ideal serving temperature should be somewhere between 50 and 60 degrees. If you chill your white wine in the fridge like I do, just take the bottle out and sit it on the counter for about 15 minutes before serving to let it warm up a bit.
Red wines are a little bit easier. The rule of thumb for red wines is to serve them at about 65 degrees.
The one thing that you definitely want to avoid is serving or storing your wines above 70 degrees. Anything above 70 degrees will speed up the aging process of the wine. The wine is sort of “cooking” on a slow simmer inside the bottle, thus killing the wine’s aromas and flavors.
My rule of thumb is to serve white wines at about 55 degrees and red wines at about 65 degrees.
I hope that this tip helps!
Choosing Wine Glasses
How many different types of wine glasses does a person need?
The folks that make the fancy glasses like Riedel and Spiegelau have a wine glass for every type of wine imaginable. But who has storage space for all of those different glasses, and wouldn’t you rather spend your money on wine instead of all of those glasses?!
I say four different shapes should be sufficient for anyone:
1.) A fancy glass for white
2.) A fancy glass for red
3.) A Champagne glass
4.) A good old all-purpose
Obviously, it’s up to you to determine how many of each of these you’ll need. You will need to factor in how often and the size of the group that you typically entertain.
Cheers!
