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B. Ideal Wine Serving Temperature
The proper temperature for serving wine is basic and straight forward
although often debated.
Dry white wines like Chardonnays or Sauvignon Blancs are normally chilled to keep them fresh and crisp.
Red wines are best at room temperature so you can enjoy some of their more concealed layers of flavor.
Dessert wines or after dinner cordials like Port, Sherry or late harvest Germans fall somewhere in between, depending on taste.
(Your taste by the way, not your waiter's.)
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D. Stemware Basics
The glass you choose has a tremendous impact on your enjoyment of wine.
Even unremarkable wines taste more elegant and refined when served in suitable stemware.
A great wine glass is plain, colorless and tulip-shaped, with a stem and a very thin lip, and made of crystal. A tinted glass, or one with etchings, doesn't allow you to appreciate
a wine's beautiful color. The tulip shape, wherein the glass tapers back in at the lip, allows for
the concentration and collection of a wine's aroma. Remember, the taste buds are far less dynamic
and discerning than the olfactory bulb -- 90 percent of what we call taste, biologically speaking,
is actually smell. The stem allows you to hold the glass without warming the wine with your body
heat. (Only brandy snifters don't have stems, and that's because you're supposed to warm the brandy
with your hand.) A thin, properly shaped lip directs the flow of the wine into your mouth in such
a way that the smooth stream touches the most sensitive areas of the tongue. A thick-rimmed glass,
on the other hand, accentuates a wine's flaws, particularly harsh acidity and bitterness. Crystal
has a rougher surface, on a microscopic level, than regular glass and therefore helps wine release
its aromas as you drink.
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E. The Four Essential Glasses
A respectable arsenal of stemware includes four glasses: a general-purpose
white wine glass, two types of red wine glasses (commonly called Bordeaux and Burgundy) and a
champagne flute. The white wine glass is small, in order to prevent the rapid warming that would
occur in a vessel with more surface area. The Bordeaux glass (which is also appropriate for
other hearty red wines, like cabernet and merlot) is
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