Most people appreciate wine for its delicious and complex taste. Produced from grapes, fermented in cellars and sipped for its intricate flavors and food-pairing characteristics, puts wine in a league of its own. Everyone has a different palate and appreciates different tastes. Taste is the enjoyable part. Try more than one wine at a time for the sake of comparison. Take advantage of opportunities to taste a wine you've never heard of, it may prove to be delightful. Add a few friends to the mix for a truly festive time! Good wine is one of life's greatest pleasures.
Food and wine pairing work best when you understand the flavors of each type. A prime cut of steak tastes good with a Cabernet. The beef's protein and fat softens up the wine's mouth-drying tannins. This sets up the tongue for the wine's fruit and berries and forest flavors to complement the smoky, meaty flavor of the steak. Sparkling wines are a home run with salty, fried food. Salt is a principal flavor in seafood. With desserts, you must be certain the wine tastes sweeter than the dessert. Zinfandel can be quite wonderful.
Entertaining with a wine and a cheese plate can be impressive to your guests. It's fun to open a range of bottles to sample with your cheese assortment- but, if you only want one type of wine, try Riesling, especially off-dry. The wine is low in alcohol, but its acidity, sweetness, tropical fruits, and mineral backbone let it partner broadly. Sparkling wines, from dry to sweet, always work well. Their ample acidity and toasty, nutty flavors complement cheeses from fresh through aged. A mixed plate of cheeses is a great excuse to open a good bottle of Champagne (or the Spanish equivalent, Cava).
Glassware is an important part in appreciating wine. Each wine glass is specifically shaped to accentuate the defining characteristics of all the different types of wine. While wine can be savored in any glass, a glass designed for a specific wine type helps you to better experience its essence. If you plan on experiencing each type, it is a good idea to invest in a nice set of stemware, you will appreciate the rewards.
All wine can be stored at the same temperature, regardless of its color. But reds and whites are consumed at different temperatures. Too often, people drink white wines too cold and red wines too warm, limiting how much you can enjoy the wine. A white wine that is too cold will be flavorless and a red wine that is too warm is often flabby and alcoholic. A good rule is that white wines should be chilled before drinking and red wines should have time to rise in temperature. Reds should be somewhere between storage temperature and room temperature. The real enemy of wine is sunlight, so make sure to store away from light.
Preservation is important with leftover wine. As wine comes into contact with air, it quickly spoils. To slow down the deterioration process, use a quick vacuum pump to suck out the excess air. The less air in the bottle, the longer the wine's lifespan.
Researchers have found that those who drink 1 to 3 glasses of wine a day, regularly are healthier than those who drink none, and those who drink more. We should rejoice in the many fine benefits of wine that can be had by properly using wine as it was meant to be used – in moderation. Occasionally splurge on a truly great wine. It's an excellent way to reward yourself.
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