How to Serve Wines

Efficient equipment, serving wine at the appropriate temperature, and choosing the right wine for the occasion all play their part in enjoyment of wine.

It's possible to spend an alarming amount of time and money on wine paraphernalia, but don't be persuaded that you need to. After all, the only essential for opening a bottle of wine in a civilized way is a corkscrew - and the only essential for drinking it, in an equally civilized way, is a glass. Some corkscrews and glasses are better than others, but that's about as far as it goes.

Aeration
An awful lot of - doubtless very enjoyable - effort has been expended on trying to find out whether wine needs to "breathe" (to aerate it), and whether it should be decanted. As there have been no incontrovertible conclusions, no doubt a lot more selfless effort will go into the study of it in future. I fully intend to do my part. What is unarguable is that opening a bottle to let the wine breathe commits you to drinking it, but makes very little difference to the wine, because far too little is in direct contact with the air.

Advocates of decanting believe that the wine exposed to air in this way undergoes an aroma-enhancing, softening, mini-maturation process. The arguments against decanting are that the same aerating process will take place anyway once the wine has been poured into the glass, or, simply that the effect is negligible. My own view is that decanting can help to "open up" high-quality, concentrated, young wines - sometimes even white wines such as burgundy - and it can help to soften rather tannic, young reds, such as Barolo, Ribera del Duero, and Californian cabernet sauvignon.

Suiting the occasion
Food is not the only consideration: season, time of day, and occasion can all point you in particular directions. A 14.5 percent-alcohol zinfandel is not often the best of lunchtime wines, nor the best wine to serve to someone who normally only drinks fairly neutral Italian whites; Vinho Verde can lose its appeal on a cold winter's evening; and the backyard on a summer's day is not a good place to serve a venerable bottle - its precious aromas will waft away in no time. Something like a New Zealand sauvignon would be much more suitable.