Books: Excerpts from History in a Glass : Wine Writing Edited by Ruth Reichl

From History in a Glass/Six Years of Wine Writing. Edited by Ruth Reichl.

In a less topsy-turvy world than the one in which we happen to be living at present, the money which is now being spent on deadly armaments could be far better used on free champagne at 11 am for everybody every morning; then we could claim to be a civilised people.

Critiquing wine is stupid. It’s not like critiquing perfumes. The latter is made by men, the former ultimately by nature, and you can’t critique nature.

Tips:

* Buy and stock two sets, table wine and fine wine.
* Wine will spoil if kept at temperatures of over 27 degrees Celcius. It will certainly spoil within hours if exposed to the air.
* Store bottled wines with corks lying down, so corks are kept moist and tight.
* White wine is ideal at 10 degrees C. For red, 15 degrees C is the best.
* Sunlight is terrible for wine.
* Never warm red wine. All wine is fine with the chill on. But if you must warm red wine, take it out some six hours before drinking, put it on a sideboard far from heat, take the cork out half-an-hour before drinking to give it air after this slow warming.
* Do not cool white wine too much. All white wine is better cooled but beyond a certain point, it kills the taste.

Once the cork rots and crumbles, decant the wine through a piece of linen and then pour it into an empty bottle and stop up.
Related Links:

Feature: Bangalore`s wines

Humour: That red elixir