Wine is a very versatile beverage that has been around for a long time. It can be used to cook with, and it can also be paired with cheeses or an entire meal. If you don’t know much about wine and the different ways it can be used, then this is the article for you.
Leftover wine should not be saved for any more than four days. When wine comes in contact with oxygen, it starts to break down. This greatly effects the taste and balance. It is best to use any wine you have leftover for cooking instead of drinking it as it is.
Wine makes for a beautiful beef sauce. To keep things simple, melt some butter in a saucepan and add some red wine. Simmer the sauce while it thickens and evaporates a little of the alcohol content. Next, take your beef dish and spoon some of the sauce over it.
Take a trip out to a vineyard. If there is one located close to you, make it a day trip. If not, consider taking a short vacation to go out and explore. An adventure such as this may help you appreciate and love wine even more than you did before.
Instead of throwing out your last bits of wine, consider saving it for a marinade for dinner the next night. Take your wine, add some seasoning and place it in a bowl. Add your favorite piece of meat to the bowl and let it sit for several hours or even overnight. This will add delicious flavor to your next night’s meal!
Have some fun with wines by trying different countries and years. Try to analyze each wine that you enjoy to find out all the different flavors it has to offer and what types of meals it works best with. Have fun with combining flavors and trying new wines regularly.
Vintage represents the year of the grape harvest, not the bottling year of the wine. Thus, a 2010 vintage contains grapes harvested in that year. This is the time they would get fermented and then aged within barrels until it is time for the wine to be bottled. The actual wine might not have hit the shelf until perhaps 2011 or maybe even 2012.
If you are cooking with wine, don’t hesitate to ask the wine shop-owner/manager for advice. He or she has likely tasted most of the wines available, and can give you an educated suggestion for wines that will enhance your recipe. The shop may even have wine on hand for tasting.
Study up on the right temperatures to drink certain wines. Yes, a few degrees can make a major difference when it comes to a wine’s overall flavor. You may find your favorite wine is perfect at room temperature, but a few degrees warmer or cooler lowers its quality. Keep notes on these peculiarities so that you can make the right choices down the line.
The Internet has once again come through to make the job easier and buying wine will never be the same again. You can now turn on your computers and shop the local and distant venues without leaving the home. This is perfect for when you have a selection in mind or don’t want to make the trip.
It just makes senses to take all advice and reviews from wine “experts” with a grain of salt. No expert in the world knows everything there is to know about wine, and the true experts will admit as much. Understand that a lot about the wine you choose will be personal preference.
A good tip if you’d like to save money on wine when dining out is to skip the wine by the glass. This is how a lot of restaurants make most of their money on wine but the consumer really misses out because most bottles are open for too long anyway.
Avoid seeking out only the highly rated, highest priced wines for your collection. While you may feel this will end up in the best wines, this is simply not true. There are plenty of moderately priced wines out there that are just magnificent. Make sure that your collection has as much variety as possible.
Before consuming any wine, you must allow the wine a period to breathe. Breathing allows the wine to release its aromas and soften. This will result in a better tasting wine. Wine should be allowed to breathe a minimum of 30 minutes prior to serving. With younger red wines, you may need to allow the wine to breathe for up to one hour to fully release its aroma.
22 ounce glasses are a great choice. Swirling your wine becomes easier at this size. For best effect, choose a thin, clear glass. A longer stem along with a curved top perfect the design.
If you drink a lot of wine, then it is important that you know how to store it properly. If you plan on keeping wine for a few weeks, then you can just store it in a dark place with a moderate temperature, such as the bottom of your closet. However, if you plan on storing it for months or years, you need to buy a wine refrigerator. Thankfully, as long as you do your research, this type of refrigerator can be very affordable with a cost of around $100 or $200.
As you can see, wine can be used in a variety of different ways. It can be used to prepare your meal, as well as accompanying the meal itself as a stand-alone beverage. Use the advice from this article to help guide you the next time you buy a bottle of wine.
