Q: When do you pour more wine?

A service rule says: The (wine ) glass of the guest should never be empty. If the wine is poured out of a bottle or carafe , the glass should be filled up to a third of its capacity, so that the wine gets enough contact with oxygen and can develop its aromas . The wine is poured - again up to this maximum filling level - when there are still one or two sips in the glass . One does not refill until the guest asks not to be refilled, or when the bottle or carafe is empty and no new one is available or ordered. The fill level is different if you order an open wine in the restaurant, which is served directly in the glass. This is then - just as with sparkling wine or dessert wine - filled to the fill or calibration mark, which is required by law ; the fill level is then about three-quarters or four-fifths.

Question 1

What is corkage money?

Accepted Answer

Cork(en)money is paid in the restaurant in order to drink a wine that one has brought oneself.

Sometimes, during a visit to a restaurant, not the food but the wine is in the foreground. But sometimes the wine list does not offer what you are looking for despite of the good or even very good food. Or one has a certain wine in the cellar that one would like to enjoy with a dish or menu in the restaurant in order to save oneself the trouble of cooking (which one might not be able to master at the adequate level).

Then it is best to ask already at the table reservation if you can bring the wine yourself, if you pay a corresponding corkage fee - for the service effort and as a symbolic compensation for the lost profit. The usual amount per cork (thus per bottle) is in the range of 5 to 15 euros. Therefore, the wine is professionally tempered and served; the glasses are also provided by the restaurant. And the landlord or the sommelier is pleased if he is also allowed to have a sip.

Question 2

What drinking temperature must a wine have?

Accepted Answer

The temperature of a wine has a direct influence on its enjoyment. If the wine is too cool, it reveals its aromas only very cautiously; it appears closed, monotonous and rather bland. If the wine is too warm, the alcohol comes out stronger, the wine appears coarse and rather clumsy. The correct drinking temperature determines whether the wine can show all its fineness and variety of aromas or not.

The following table givesguidelines for the drinking temperature of different types of wine:

strong, full-bodied red wines	16°C to 18°C
light red wines with low tannin content	14°C to 16°C
high-quality, complex white wines; rosé wines; orange wines	12°C to 14°C
full, aromatic white wines; complex sparkling wines; sweet wines	10°C to 12°C
light, fresh white wines; uncomplicated sparkling wines; sparkling wines	8°C to 10°C

These figures are, as already mentioned, indicative. In case of doubt, personal taste is decisive - some people may like their red wine cooler, others may prefer to drink their white wine a little warmer.

The advice that red wine should be drunk "at room temperature" - as it is often heard and read - comes from a time when people lived in rooms with an average temperature of about 18 degrees. Today, however, the room temperature is usually 20 to 22 degrees - this is clearly too warm for any wine, including red wine! It does no harm, therefore, to put red wine in a slightly cool place before drinking it.

Note: Wine always warms up by itself. Already when pouring into the glass the wine warms up by one to two degrees.

Wine thermometer

There are various wine thermometers for the exact determination of the wine temperature:

The classic variant is placed at the top of the opened, still full bottle; the glass bulb dips into the wine and measures the temperature.
Cuffs that are placed around the neck of the bottle and measure the temperature are easier to handle. Without direct contact with the wine itself, this method is less accurate, but also less complicated, and unlike the classic thermometer, it also works with unopened or no longer full bottles.

Temperature control of wine

If there is enough time before enjoying the bottle, place it in the refrigerator or in a cool cellar room for a few hours - or even a day - so that it can slowly adjust its temperature. In a Wine climate control cabinet every wine automatically has the right drinking temperature, as it is stored at this temperature.

If a white or sparkling wine is to be chilled in a short time, there are several methods:

The most mundane is to put the bottle in the freezer or chest freezer for half an hour or three quarters of an hour.
It is much nicer and also more effective to place the bottle in a bucket of ice and water; after 15 to 20 minutes the first glass can be poured.
To speed up the cooling process, you can fill the bucket halfway with ice and cold water and add salt. The salt will then thaw the ice more quickly and the ice will release its cold to the water and the bottle. This process is called frappling.
It can be done even faster with a cooling cuff (e.g. "Rapid Ice"), which is stored in the freezer or in the freezer. The cuff is placed completely around the bottle (at least around its belly) and releases the stored cold very quickly to the wine; the cooling effect already occurs after ten minutes. With approximately ten euros, this is a relatively cheap purchase and a great help in case of emergency.

A red wine that one wants to warm up relatively fast from cellar temperature to drinking temperature can be put in the bottle or also in a carafe in lukewarm water; this procedure is called chambrieren.

Question 3

How to open a wine bottle properly?

Accepted Answer

The easiest way to create bottles with Screw cap open: simply unscrew the cap - pour - enjoy.

Opening a wine bottle is similarly simple with Crown cap (although this type of closure is rare): With a conventional bottle opener (or a waiter's knife in which it is integrated) the crown cap is pushed or pulled upwards.

For wine bottles with Glass stopper the metal foil(capsule) over the closure must first be removed. If the capsule has a tear-open tab, this can be done without any tools, otherwise a small knife is used; this is already integrated in the waiter's knife. After the capsule has been cut and lifted off, the glass stopper only has to be pressed upwards (preferably with the thumb).

A waiter's knife is ideal for opening a wine bottle with natural or plastic cor ks, as it combines all the necessary tools in one tool. Otherwise you will need a corkscrew and possibly a small knife. With the knife you first cut off the metal foil (capsule) that protects the cork. For white and rosé wines, this is done above, for red wines below the glass bead around the neck of the bottle. If the capsule has a tear tab, the use of a knife is not necessary. The corkscrew is then placed in the middle of the cork and turned straight with gentle turns; it must not pierce the cork. Then it is pulled out powerfully but carefully in one piece, which should be as silent as possible; a loud "pop" at this point is not a sign of professionalism. A waiter's knife offers the great advantage here that it uses leverage to pull out the cork - in one or two stages depending on the model - which makes the whole process easier and more discreet. With natural corks, it is recommended to clean the bottle opening with a clean cloth to remove any dirt before pouring.

Sparkling wine bottles are closed with natural or plastic corks and an agraffe. This wire frame encloses the upper part of the cork and secures it against the carbon dioxide pressure in the bottle. To open the cork, the metal foil over the agraffe is first removed, which in most cases is easily done with the help of an attached tear tab (otherwise a small knife is used). Then a hand is placed around the neck of the bottle so that the thumb holds the cork, on which the agraffe is still sitting. With the other hand the agraffe is carefully unscrewed; if the thumb feels already now clear resistance on the cork, the bottle is under pressure, and special attention is required. The agraffe is then carefully removed from the bottle in such a way that the cork always remains secured by the thumb and cannot shoot out of the bottle uncontrolled. These handles may require some practice. Afterwards the cork is embraced by hand or - even better - with a clean cloth, then the bottle is held at a slight angle and turned very carefully until the cork is driven out of the bottle by the carbon dioxide pressure. This process should at best be noticeable by a hissing sound, not a loud bang. With natural corks, it is recommended to clean the bottle opening with a clean cloth to remove any dirt before pouring.

Question 4

How do you serve wine?

Accepted Answer

The professional wine service is a small ceremony, but it is not very complicated and moreover very useful. It takes place as follows:

Present the closed wine bottle so that the (front) label is clearly visible. (In a restaurant, the sommelier or waiter presents the bottle in this way to the person who ordered the wine, usually the host)
Place the bottle in front of the guests so that the label is still visible.
The bottle open:
Note: On Waiter's knife offers the great advantage of combining all the tools (knife, corkscrew, bottle opener) in a single tool when opening the wine bottle and using the lever action to extract the cork (in one or two stages depending on the model), making the whole process easier and more elegant.
With natural corks: Smell briefly and discreetly at the cork to identify any imperfections and also let the host/orderer smell the cork.
After release: If necessary, clean the bottle opening with a clean cloth to remove any dirt.
Pour a sample into the glass for the host/customer (making sure that the label is visible); drops can be avoided by turning the bottle a little at the end. The host/purchaser checks the appearance, smell and taste of the wine. (In the restaurant, if there is any doubt about the impeccable quality of the wine, the sommelier or waiter can also check the smell and taste in a separate glass at the request of the host/orderer)
For wine that needs a lot of air (this is decided by the host/orderer): carefully decant the wine from the bottle into a carafe; for red wine, make sure that any deposit remains in the bottle (keyword: decant).
After release: Pour a glass of wine to a quarter or a third of the volume of the glass (make sure that the label is visible when pouring) - ladies before gentlemen, highest ranking guest first, host/orderer last. Drips can be avoided by turning the bottle a little at the end; especially with red wine, an additional anti-drip device (a napkin or a special ring around the neck of the bottle, a rolled metal foil in the neck of the bottle or a special spout) is recommended to prevent stains.
Putwhite or rosé wine in a prepared Cooler place the wine on the table, ideally on a side table.
The host is responsible for refilling, in the restaurant the sommelier or waiter.

Question 5

Which glass is used for which wine?

Accepted Answer

The glass has a very large influence on how a wine presents itself in smell and taste.

These three principles are helpful in every wine-glass situation:

The ideal and insofar universal wine glass has a stem (and is only touched on it) and a bulbous goblet which tapers towards the top (to keep the fine aromas in the glass as much as possible) and whose wall is as thin as possible.
A larger wine glass is always better than one that is too small, because a larger surface allows more contact with air, so that the wine can develop more quickly and the aromas can unfold more quickly.
At Sparkling wine narrow glasses are recommended so that the surface area is as small as possible in order not to let the carbon dioxide escape too quickly.

The following principles apply when choosing between several types of glass:

For light, fruity white wines, a rather slim glass is recommended, which preserves the fine aromas for as long as possible due to the small liquid surface, and which also visually matches the style of the wine.
For full-bodied, intensive white wines - especially those that have been aged in wooden barrels - and for Rosé wines the glass may be larger and more bulbous, as the contact with air harmonizes the aromas and texture.
For fruity, delicate red wines that have been aged in stainless steel tanks or in large wooden barrels, the glass should also be larger and more bulbous, but does not have to allow maximum contact with air.
Strong, concentrated, tannin-rich red wines require a large, bulbous glass that brings together the complex aromas and "unlocks" the tannins, making the mouth feel fuller and smoother.
For Sweet wines a small, again rather narrow glass is suitable, which brings out the fine and differentiated aromas appropriately and does not release them too quickly.

It is recommendable to have at least one universally applicable wine glass in sufficient quantity in the house. The choice can be based on the type of wine you prefer.

For professional tastings there are specially developed universal glasses, e.g. the DIN test glass "Sensus". However, these are relatively small and only suitable to a very limited extent for wine enjoyment (in contrast to professional tasting).

More and more glass manufacturers are developing specific glasses for individual wine types or grape varieties, sometimes in several series. The names of the glasses often give an indication of the type of wine for which they were developed (e.g. "Riesling", "Burgundy", " Bordeaux"). All of these glasses fulfil their purpose, and in the end the decision will be based on aesthetic and financial considerations.

This selection of glass manufacturers (in alphabetical order) gives an overview of the variety of models:

How great the sensory differences are for the same wine depending on the choice of glass can be read in this blog post as an example: Because we can

Question 6

Why do you have to let wine breathe?

Accepted Answer

Most of the aromatic substances in wine are only "broken down" by the oxygen in the air. In the end, chemical elements react with each other and compounds are formed that humans perceive as fragrances. The longer the wine "breathes", i.e. the more air or oxygen it receives, the more intense and complex the scent becomes and the more it changes over time. This is because many of the aromatic substances are volatile, i.e. they disappear again after a while or enter into other chemical compounds, which in turn create new scents. Thus, a wine can go through different aromatic phases, depending on how long it is allowed to "breathe".

Air or oxygenation also gives a fuller and more complex taste and, in the case of red wines, leads to a softer, rounder texture, because the tannins (tannins) link up under the influence of oxygen to form longer molecules(polymerisation). This not only gives the wine more expression but also a more pleasant mouthfeel.

Breathing means living - and the wine also comes to life aromatically when it is given air.

Question 7

When do you decant wine?

Accepted Answer

Basically decanting means adding more oxygen to a wine by decanting it from the bottle into another vessel (a special carafe). The oxygen unlocks the aromas of the wine: The more air the wine gets, the more intense and complex its aroma becomes and the fuller, more complex and rounder its taste becomes. In this context, however, a distinction must be made between carafing and decanting.

If it is only a matter of "aeration" of the wine, one speaks of carafing. In this process, the wine firstly comes into contact with oxygen during decanting and secondly, the carafe has a larger surface area where the oxygen can settle. The carafes that serve this purpose are very wide at the bottom and taper off considerably towards the top; their appearance is somewhat reminiscent of ice sticks (the sports equipment). Carafes are used for strong, young red wines and white wines with a lot of extract, a lot of minerality and/or a lot of tannin to make them more accessible through the influence of oxygen. As a rule, the wine is carafed a few hours before consumption, sometimes even up to 24 hours can be useful. To taste the wine again and again during the aeration period to witness its changes is a fascinating pleasure.

Unlike carafing, decanting in the strict sense of the word is mainly used to separate an old red wine from the deposit that has formed in the bottle as it matures. These are (harmless, but unpleasantly bitter tasting) sediments that settle over the years - a completely natural process. During decanting, the wine is also transferred from the bottle into a carafe. However, the neck of the bottle is held over a light source (usually a candle) so that the deposit can be recognised immediately. This then remains in the bottle with a small remainder of wine. As matured wines are more fragile, i.e. they change more quickly in air and may degenerate rapidly, there are special decanting carafes for this purpose, which are differently shaped and offer a smaller liquid surface. In case of particularly old, valuable wines, decanting should be avoided in case of doubt in order not to run the risk that they break down very quickly due to too much contact with air.

Occasionally, carafing or decanting can also have aesthetic reasons: If, in a very humid cellar, the label or cork has become unsightly over time or the bottle has taken on a musty smell, the wine can be decanted into a carafe so as not to impair the enjoyment of the wine visually or olfactorily.

Cleaning decanting carafes

Cleaning wine carafes is not easy due to their special shape. To remove deposits effectively, there are a number of tricks:

Dental cleaning tablets reliably dissolve dirt, are tasteless and leave no residue. However, milky residues may develop on sensitive crystal glass carafes.
Soiling can also be removed by dissolving baking powder in a little water and leaving it in the carafe for a day.
Another possibility is to mix coarse sea salt and white wine vinegar and swirl it in the carafe by shaking.

In any case it is essential to rinse the carafe very thoroughly with clear water after the cleaning treatment.

Turbo-Aeration

To add oxygen to a wine, there are also special decanting spouts(venturi tube) which are simply placed on the bottle and enrich the wine with air when pouring. This can be a time-saving alternative to carafing if a wine that needs aeration needs to be available quickly.

Question 8

What do you have to consider when ordering wine in a restaurant?

Accepted Answer

The wine list already shows the importance of wine in a restaurant. If there are only indications such as "Pinot Grigio", "Greek country wine" or "house wine (red)", one should lower one's expectations of quality considerably. A good wine list has a certain scope, includes both open and bottled wines at least in the variants white and red, and indicates at least the vintage, origin and grape variety(ies) for each wine.

The wine selection

The harmony of wine and food is a complex issue. As a guest, you often know neither the wines on the menu nor the ingredients and the preparation of the dish you have ordered. It is therefore the duty of the waiters and waitresses to help the guest with the choice of wine in case of doubt. She should be able to judge which wine goes well with which meal, and also have a feeling for how much the guest is willing to spend on a bottle of wine. As a guest, you can also clearly specify the price range - or you can ask whether a certain wine, which is priced in the desired range, is suitable for the chosen dish; in this way you discreetly but clearly signal the desired price level.

Unfortunately, in many cases, the service staff is not very knowledgeable about wine - even if the wine list makes a good impression. Sometimes, the wines are then at least partially described in the card in a sensory way, so that one can get an approximate idea of their aroma and texture. If you are really on your own when it comes to choosing wines, the "Food and Wine" section for beginners offers help: What do you need to consider when combining wine and food?

The sommelier or sommelière

The sommelier or sommelière is explicitly responsible for the wine advice of the guests in the top gastronomy. As a specially trained service staff member, the sommelier or sommelière has a sound, comprehensive knowledge of the entire world of wine and is also responsible for the purchase and storage of wines in the restaurant. Therefore he or she knows all the wines on the menu (which he or she has created himself or herself) as well as the style of the cuisine and the individual dishes very well. The sommelier or sommelière can competently recommend the right wine to go with the meal (or the right food to go with the wine) - this advice can and should be trusted.

Some representatives of the Sommelerie guild are sometimes said to be instructive or arrogant. This is, if it should happen, - as in any other service profession - completely out of place and unprofessional. Conversely, it is also not appropriate to try to impress or even outdo the sommelier or sommelière as a guest with your own wine knowledge. Such airs and graces should not be necessary as a man of pleasure.

The Ceremony

If you order an open wine, it is usually served ready poured in a glass or in a carafe. The finer way is to pour also openly offered wines from the bottle at the table after the guest has had a chance to have a look at the bottle.

After ordering a bottle of wine, it is first presented to the guest closed. The guest then checks the label to make sure that it is actually the wine he or she wants. A possible change of the choice is now also still possible without any problems.

Only after the guest has signalled that he/she agrees, the bottle is opened at the table. Then he or she is given a sample sip. Whoever cannot or does not want to do the tasting themselves can safely ask another guest at the table or even the waitress to taste the wine. As the person who tries the wine (because usually he or she has also ordered), one checks whether the smell and the taste are perfect. This check is not about commenting or evaluating the wine, but about detecting possible faults, e.g. a cork taster, at an early stage and making a complaint. If the bottle was closed with a natural cork, you can look at it and/or smell it; but in this way you will not find a wine defect that you would not be able to detect much more clearly in a glass.

The smelling and tasting should be done in peace. If the wine is faultless, you signal your approval by nodding your head or by a short, positive comment ("It's okay."). A decided quality assessment is not necessary - but of course you are allowed to comment on the wine in more detail. If you are unsure about the faultless quality, you are welcome to ask the service staff for their opinion; some wine faults are not easy to detect even for professionals. Only when it is certain that the wine is impeccable is it poured into the entire table; the person who ordered or tasted the wine is the last to be poured.

It can happen that e.g. a cork taster only becomes noticeable after a longer period of time - with increasing air contact or higher temperature. Even then you can still complain about the wine and ask the service to carry out an examination to confirm the suspicion. Nobody has to drink corked wine just because it is supposedly too late for a complaint. But the complaint becomes unbelievable if the two of you have already drunk almost the whole bottle...

The financial side

A catering business has to calculate differently than a retailer. That is why wine is logically more expensive in a restaurant than in the retail trade. But moon prices are not justified. A surcharge of 100 to 200 percent on the purchase price seems reasonable, although the more expensive the wine, the lower the percentage surcharge should be.

Outside of top gastronomy, a decent bottle of wine should be available for under 20 Euros; good quality usually costs between 20 and 40 Euros.

Question 9

When do you pour more wine?

Accepted Answer

A service rule says: The (wine) glass of the guest should never be empty.

If the wine is poured out of a bottle or carafe, the glass should be filled up to a third of its capacity, so that the wine gets enough contact with oxygen and can develop its aromas. The wine is poured - again up to this maximum filling level - when there are still one or two sips in the glass. One does not refill until the guest asks not to be refilled, or when the bottle or carafe is empty and no new one is available or ordered.

The fill level is different if you order an open wine in the restaurant, which is served directly in the glass. This is then - just as with sparkling wine or dessert wine - filled to the fill or calibration mark, which is required by law; the fill level is then about three-quarters or four-fifths.

Question 10

Where are the wine glass and water glass on the table?

Accepted Answer

Wine and water glasses are in the upper right-hand corner of the plate; if you look at it as the dial of a clock, for example at one or two o'clock.

The so-called directional glass is the glass into which the wine is poured that is drunk with the main course; usually this is the red wine glass or at least the largest wine glass. This guide glass, at whose position all other glasses are aligned, is placed in a straight line above the main course knife.

If the guide glass is the only wine glass of the set on the table, the water glass, seen from the table, is at the bottom right, i.e. at four or five o'clock.

If there are two wine glasses - one for red wine and one for white wine - the guide glass remains the red wine glass, and the white wine glass is at about four or five o'clock on the lower right. The water glass is then placed in a straight line to the right under the white wine glass, again at four or five o'clock. Alternatively, if there are three glasses, the water glass can be placed between the red and white wine glass at the top right, creating a kind of glass triangle.

With four glasses (red wine glass, white wine glass, water glass as well as champagne or dessert wine glass) the champagne or dessert wine glass is either - in the first case (glass row) - placed in a straight line on the left above the red wine glass (at about ten or eleven o'clock) or - in the second case (glass triangle) - above between the red and the water glass, thus forming a glass square. The fact that the guest in this case cannot reach the fourth glass (i.e. the champagne or dessert wine glass) at first is irrelevant, because when the white and red wine glass are cleared after the respective courses in the menu sequence, this fourth glass becomes the guide glass and takes its position above the cheese knife or dessert spoon.

In this respect, if there are more than two glasses, the row of glasses is the more spacious, but also the more practical variant.

Question 11

How to remove red wine stains?

Accepted Answer

The colorants in red wine - the anthocyanins - are persistent.

Fresh red wine stains on textiles (table linen or articles of clothing) should immediately be generously treated with White wine (do not dribble, but rather soak), because this medium dissolves the red colorants best, since it is most similar to red wine itself. Let the white wine soak in for a short time and then dry the fabric with kitchen paper as much as the situation requires. The soiled tablecloth or napkin or the affected garment should then be washed regularly as soon as possible; experience has shown that no special detergent additive is necessary as long as the fabric is still damp.

Dried red wine stains should be treated with a special stain remover or oxidizing agent before washing.

Welcome back!

Wine service and pleasure

Open wine, decant and which glass? Can I bring my own wine to the restaurant? How is wine served?

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Welcome back!

Wine service and pleasure

Open wine, decant and which glass? Can I bring my own wine to the restaurant? How is wine served?

Categories

EVENTS NEAR YOU

PREMIUM PARTNERS: