Q: What is corkage fee?

You pay corkage money in a restaurant to drink a wine that you have brought yourself. Sometimes the focus of a visit to a restaurant is not on the food but on the wine. Sometimes, however, the wine list does not offer what you want, despite good or even very good cuisine. Or you have a certain wine in your cellar that you would like to enjoy with a dish or menu in the restaurant in order to save yourself the trouble of cooking (which you may not be able to do at an adequate level). In this case, it is best to ask when booking a table whether you can bring the wine yourself if you pay an appropriate corkage fee - for the service effort and as symbolic compensation for the lost profit. The usual amount per cork (i.e. per bottle) is in the range of 5 to 15 euros. In return, the wine is professionally tempered and served; the glasses are also provided by the restaurant. And the host or the sommelier is happy if he is also allowed to try a sip.

Q: How to remove red wine stains?

The dyes in red wine - the anthocyanins - are persistent. Fresh red wine stains on textiles (table linen or clothing) should immediately be treated generously with White wine (do not drip, but rather soak), because this medium dissolves the red dyes best, as it is most similar to the red wine itself. Let the white wine soak in briefly and then dry the fabric with kitchen paper as much as the situation requires. The stained tablecloth or napkin or the affected garment should then be washed regularly as soon as possible; experience has shown that a special detergent additive is not necessary while the fabric is still damp. Dried-in red wine st ains should be treated with a special stain remover or oxidising agent before washing

Question 1

What is corkage fee?

Accepted Answer

You paycorkage money in a restaurant to drink a wine that you have brought yourself.

Sometimes the focus of a visit to a restaurant is not on the food but on the wine. Sometimes, however, the wine list does not offer what you want, despite good or even very good cuisine. Or you have a certain wine in your cellar that you would like to enjoy with a dish or menu in the restaurant in order to save yourself the trouble of cooking (which you may not be able to do at an adequate level).

In this case, it is best to ask when booking a table whether you can bring the wine yourself if you pay an appropriate corkage fee - for the service effort and as symbolic compensation for the lost profit. The usual amount per cork (i.e. per bottle) is in the range of 5 to 15 euros. In return, the wine is professionally tempered and served; the glasses are also provided by the restaurant. And the host or the sommelier is happy if he is also allowed to try 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 reservedly; it appears closed, monotonous and rather bland. If the wine is too warm, the alcohol comes out more strongly, the wine appears coarse and rather clumsy. The right drinking temperature decides whether the wine can show all its fineness and variety of aromas or not.

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

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

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

The reference that red wine should be drunk "at room temperature" - as it is often heard and read - dates back to a time when people lived in rooms with an average temperature of about 18 degrees. Today, by contrast, the room temperature is usually 20 to 22 degrees - which is clearly too warm for any wine, including red wine! It therefore does no harm to chill red wine a little before drinking it.

Remember: wine always gets warm on its own. The wine warms up by one to two degrees as soon as it is poured into the glass.

Wine thermometer

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

The classic version is inserted into the top of the open, still full bottle; the glass bulb is immersed in the wine and measures the temperature.
Easier to handle are cuffs that are placed around the neck of the bottle and measure the temperature. 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.

Tempering wine

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

If a white or sparkling wine needs to be cooled 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 with ice and water; the first glass can be poured after only 15 to 20 minutes.
To speed up the cooling process, you can fill the bucket halfway with ice and halfway with cold water and add salt. The salt will then thaw the ice more quickly, and the ice will give off its coldness to the water and the bottle. This process is called frapping.
It is even faster with a cooling sleeve (e.g. "Rapid Ice"), which is stored 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 takes effect after only ten minutes. At around ten euros, this is a relatively inexpensive purchase and a great help in an emergency.

A red wine that you want to warm up relatively quickly from cellar temperature to drinking temperature can be placed in lukewarm water in the bottle or also in a carafe; this process is called chambrating

Question 3

How do you open a wine bottle properly?

Accepted Answer

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

It is similarly simple to open a wine bottle with Crown cork (although this type of closure is rare): with a conventional bottle opener (or a waiter's knife that has one integrated), the crown cork is pushed or pulled upwards.

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

A waiter's knife is ideal for opening a wine bottle with a natural or plastic c ork, as it combines all the necessary tools in one. Otherwise, you need a corkscrew and, if necessary, 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 the glass bead around the neck of the bottle, for red wines below. If the capsule has a tear-off tab, it is not necessary to use the knife. The corkscrew is then inserted into the centre of the cork and gently turned straight in; it must not pierce the cork. Then it is pulled out powerfully but gently in one piece, which should be as noiseless 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 advisable to clean any dirt from the bottle opening with a clean cloth before pouring.

Sparkling wine bottles are closed with natural or plastic corks as well as an agraffe. This wire frame encloses the upper part of the cork and secures it against the carbonic acid pressure in the bottle. To open the bottle, the metal foil over the agraffe is first removed, which in most cases can be done very easily with the help of an attached pull tab (otherwise, a small knife is used). Then one hand is placed around the neck of the bottle so that the thumb holds the cork, which still has the agraffe on it. With the other hand, the agraffe is carefully twisted open; if the thumb already feels clear resistance on the cork, the bottle is under pressure and special care 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 uncontrollably. These hand movements may require some practice. Then the cork is grasped with the hand or - even better - a clean cloth, then the bottle is held at a slight angle and very carefully turned until the cork is driven out of the bottle by the carbonic acid pressure. This process should at most be noticeable by a hissing sound, not a loud pop. With natural corks, it is advisable to clean any dirt from the bottle opening with a clean cloth before pouring.

Question 4

How to serve wine?

Accepted Answer

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

Present the sealed 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: A Waiter's knife offers the great advantage when opening the wine bottle that it combines all the tools (knife, corkscrew, bottle opener) in one tool and uses leverage to extract the cork (in one or two stages, depending on the model), making the whole operation easier and more elegant.
With natural corks: Smell the cork briefly and discreetly to detect off-flavours and also let the host/orderer smell the cork.
After release: If necessary, clean any dirt from the bottle opening with a clean cloth.
Pour a test sip into the glass for the host/orderer (making sure that the label is visible); drops can be avoided by giving the bottle a slight twist at the end. The host/orderer checks the appearance, smell and taste of the wine. (In a restaurant, if the host/orderer is in doubt about the impeccable quality of the wine, the sommelier or waiter can also check the smell and taste in a separate glass)
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: decanting).
After release: Pour a quarter or a third of the glass to each guest (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 drip protector is recommended (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 pourer) to prevent stains.
Placewhite or rosé wine in a prepared Cooler place, red wine on the table, ideally on a side table.
The host, in a restaurant the sommelier or waiter, is responsible for refilling the glasses

Question 5

Which glass do you use for which wine?

Accepted Answer

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

These three principles will help in any wine-glass situation:

The ideal and insofar universal wine glass has a stem (and is only touched by the stem ) and a bulbous goblet that 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 air contact, 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 to prevent the carbonic acid from escaping too quickly.

When choosing between several types of glass, the following principles apply:

For light, fruit-driven white wines, a rather slim glass is recommended, which preserves the fine aromas as long as possible due to the small liquid surface and also visually accommodates the style of the wine.
For full-bodied, intense white wines - especially those that have been matured in wooden barrels - and for Rosé wines the glass may be larger and more bulbous, as contact with the air harmonises the aromas and texture.
For fruity, delicate red wines that have been matured in stainless steel tanks or large wooden barrels, the glass should also be larger and more bulbous, but does not have to allow maximum air contact.
Powerful, concentrated, tannin-rich red wines require a large, expansively bulbous glass that brings together the complex aromas and "opens up" the tannins, i.e. makes 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 advisable to have at least one universal wine glass in the house in sufficient quantity. 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 very limitedly suitable for enjoying wine (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. Often the names of the glasses give an indication of the type of wine for which they were developed (e.g. "Riesling", "Burgundy", Bordeaux"). These glasses all serve their purpose; 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 big 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 first "broken down" by oxygen from the air. Ultimately, chemical elements react with each other here, 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 aroma 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 form other chemical compounds, which in turn give rise to new fragrances. Thus, a wine can go through different aromatic phases depending on how long it is allowed to "breathe".

The supply of air or oxygen also ensures a fuller and more complex flavour and, in the case of red wines, leads to a softer, rounder texture because the tannins (tannins) chain themselves into longer molecules under the influence of oxygen(polymerisation). This not only gives the wine more expression, but also a more pleasant mouthfeel.

Breathing means living - and wine also comes to life aromatically when it gets air.

Question 7

When do you decant wine?

Accepted Answer

Basically, decanting means adding more oxygen to a wine by transferring it from the bottle to 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 caraffing and decanting.

If it is only a matter of "aerating" the wine, we speak of decanting. Firstly, the wine comes into contact with oxygen during decanting, and secondly, it has a larger surface area in the decanter on which the oxygen can settle. The carafes that serve this purpose are very wide at the bottom and taper sharply towards the top; their appearance is somewhat reminiscent of ice sticks (the sports equipment). Strong, young red wines and white wines with a lot of extract, a lot of minerality and/or a lot of tannin are caraffed to make them more accessible through the influence of oxygen. As a rule, the wine in question is caraffed a few hours before drinking, sometimes even up to 24 hours can be useful. Tasting the wine again and again during the aeration period to witness its changes is a fascinating pleasure.

In contrast to mere decanting, decanting in the narrower sense mainly serves to separate an old red wine from the deposit that has formed in the bottle in the course of maturation. This is (harmless, but unpleasantly bitter-tasting) lees that settle over the years - a completely natural process. When decanting, the wine is also transferred from the bottle into a decanter, but the neck of the bottle is held over a light source (usually a candle) to be able to see immediately when the deposit appears. This then remains in the bottle with a small amount of wine. Since matured wines are more fragile, i.e. they change more quickly in the air and may degenerate rapidly, there are special decanters for this purpose that are shaped differently and offer a smaller liquid surface. For particularly old, valuable wines, decanting should be avoided in case of doubt so as not to run the risk of them collapsing very quickly due to too much contact with air.

Occasionally, caraffing or decanting can also have aesthetic reasons: If, in a very damp 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 decanter so as not to impair the enjoyment experience visually or olfactorically.

Cleaning decanters

Cleaning wine decanters is not easy because of their special shape. There are a number of tricks to effectively remove deposits:

Bit cleaner tablets reliably dissolve soiling, are tasteless and leave no residue. However, milky residues may occur on sensitive crystal glass carafes.
Contamination can also be removed by dissolving baking soda 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 them 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 pourers(Venturi tube) that are simply placed on the bottle and enrich the wine with air while pouring. This can be a time-saving alternative to decanting when a wine in need of 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 is a good indicator of the importance of wine in a restaurant. If you only find information such as "Pinot Grigio", "Greek country wine" or "house wine (red)", you should lower your expectations of quality considerably. A good wine list has a certain scope, includes both open and bottled wines, at least in the white and red varieties, and gives 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. Often, guests know neither the wines on the menu nor the exact ingredients and preparation of the dish they have ordered. Therefore, it is the task of the service staff (the waiter or waitress) to help the guest with the wine selection in case of doubt. They should be able to assess which wine harmonises with which food and also have a feeling for how much the guest is prepared to spend on a bottle of wine. As a guest, you may also clearly specify the price range - or you ask whether a certain wine, which is priced in the targeted range, goes with 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 when the wine list makes a good impression. Sometimes the wines are described in the menu, at least to some extent sensorially, so that you can get an approximate idea of their aroma and texture. If you are really left to your own devices when it comes to choosing a wine, the beginner's knowledge section "Food and Wine" offers help: What do you have to bear in mind when combining wine and food?

The sommelier or sommelière

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

Some representatives of the sommelier guild are sometimes said to behave in a lecturing or arrogant manner. If this should happen, it is - as in any other service profession - completely out of place and unprofessional. Conversely, it is also improper to try to impress or even outdo the sommelier or sommelière as a guest with one's own wine knowledge. As a gourmet, you should not need to put on such airs and graces.

The ceremony

When you order an open wine, it is usually served ready-poured in a glass or carafe. The finer way is to pour open wines from the bottle at the table after the guest has had a chance to examine the bottle.

After ordering a bottle of wine, it is first presented to the guest sealed. The guest then checks the label to see if it is actually the desired wine. A possible change of choice is now also possible without any problems.

Only after the guest has signalled that he or she agrees is the bottle opened at the table. Afterwards, the guest is poured a test sip. Those who cannot or do not want to do the tasting themselves can ask another guest at the table or the service staff to taste the wine without hesitation. As the person who tastes the wine (because, as a rule, he or she has also ordered it), you check whether the smell and taste are impeccable. This test is not about commenting on or evaluating the wine, but about discovering and complaining about possible faults, e.g. a cork taint, at an early stage. If the bottle was sealed with a natural cork, you can also look at it and/or smell it; but you will not find a wine fault in this way that you would not recognise much more clearly in the glass.

Smelling and tasting should be done calmly. If the wine is flawless, you signal your approval by nodding your head or making a short, positive comment ("It's fine."). A definite quality assessment is not necessary - but of course one may also comment on the wine in more detail. If you are unsure about the flawless quality, you are welcome to ask the service staff for their opinion; some wine faults are not easy to spot even for professionals. Only when it is certain that the wine is flawless is it poured for the entire table; the person who ordered or tasted the wine is poured last.

It can happen that a cork taint, for example, 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 inspection to confirm the suspicion. No one has to drink corked wine just because it is supposedly too late for a complaint. However, the complaint becomes unbelievable when two people have already drunk almost the entire bottle...

The financial side

A restaurant has to calculate differently than a retailer. Therefore, wine is logically more expensive in restaurants than in shops. Moon prices, however, are not justified. A mark-up of 100 to 200 per cent on the purchase price seems appropriate, whereby the more expensive the wine, the lower the percentage mark-up should be.

Outside of top gastronomy, a decent bottle of wine should be available for less than 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 guest's (wine) glass should never be empty.

If the wine is poured from a bottle or carafe, the glass should be filled to about a third of its capacity so that the wine has enough oxygen contact and can develop its aromas. The glass is topped up - again to a maximum of this level - when there are still one or two sips left in the glass; this amount is called the "neige". No more refills are poured until the guest asks for no more refills, or when the bottle or carafe is empty and no more are available or have been ordered.

The pouring level is different if you order an open wine in a restaurant that is served directly in a glass. In this case - as with sparkling wine or dessert wine - the glass is filled up to the fill or calibration mark, which is required by law; the fill level is then approximately three quarters or four fifths.

The above-mentioned service rule is considered a classic doctrine in gastronomy. Its background lies in the fact that an empty glass could be interpreted as inattention on the part of the service staff or the host, and is to be understood in the sense of "hospitable care". However, there are also other views on this subject, which state that the glass must first be empty before refilling it, as refilling could otherwise be perceived as intrusive.

In any case, the same glass should only be refilled from the same bottle or carafe. If a new bottle or a new carafe (the contents of which may come from another bottle in the case of open wines) is ordered, at least a fresh tasting glass is provided so that the guest(s) can taste the new wine before it is served. It is up to the guest (host) to decide whether to continue using the (avinated) glasses already in use or to set new glasses. Separate glasses are generally used for different wines.

All questions that arise in this context can best be answered by letting the guest(s) decide how they would like it. In any case, refills should never be given without being asked. The question does not have to be asked explicitly verbally, but can be asked gesturally by making eye contact with the guest with the bottle or carafe in hand or by pausing over the glass before pouring until the guest signals his or her agreement (nodding head, saying something).

If the guest is given the opportunity to decide for himself when and into which glass to pour, he is not patronised (which would be taboo from the host's point of view) but, on the contrary, particularly valued. This should be a matter of course, and the appropriate time to ask whether wine may be refilled is - see above - when there is still some left in the glass.

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 dyes in red wine - the anthocyanins - are persistent.

Fresh red wine stains on textiles (table linen or clothing) should immediately be treated generously with White wine (do not drip, but rather soak), because this medium dissolves the red dyes best, as it is most similar to the red wine itself. Let the white wine soak in briefly and then dry the fabric with kitchen paper as much as the situation requires. The stained tablecloth or napkin or the affected garment should then be washed regularly as soon as possible; experience has shown that a special detergent additive is not necessary while the fabric is still damp.

Dried-in red wine st ains should be treated with a special stain remover or oxidising agent before washing

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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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