'Has it been chilled? Can you pop an ice cube in it?'
If, like me, you serve wine & food to customers for a living then this question will be as familiar as the statement 'Ooh the soup's nice & hot. ' Yeah, I've spent my whole career, as has the chef, ensuring I can put a bottle of wine in a fridge & the chef a saucepan of soup on a stove. So what else am I to learn from my WSET about wine service? Chilled wine has a place, as has the degree of chilling. Wine has an optimum placing, both arriving in its best receptacle as much as what next to.
Food fridges generally are set to 2-5ºC to ensure food is kept in its best condition for as long as possible. Drinks fridges not so cold. The coolest these should be at is 6º.
bettertastingwine has conveniently posted the matrix http://www.bettertastingwine.com/serving_temperature_chart.html so I'll not simply repeat, but it is of note that the fuller the wine the warmer the service temperature. The light chilling of paler reds has become more common practice in the UK now. I shall be less keen with the ice bucket for the fuller whites, also our snugly warm room temperature is way too warm for even the biggest reds, it'll be 1/2 an hour on the doorstep for the home service of these this winter at home.
I can open a bottle of wine, well practised, but there are a host of options for getting in there.
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My preference is the little green chap 2nd left bottom row, the waiters' friend. My nemesis to his right. I've never tried the twin prong, so still have things to look forward to then. This image is from http://www.davidstuff.com/wine/glasses.htm who conveniently has a lovely selection of wine glasses too & some sound advice on their care. I particularly like this quote 'If, like me, you don't particularly care to handle your delicate crystal glasses after consuming more than one serving, then thoroughly rinse the wine residue out of the glass and clean it in the morning when your motor functions are more stable.'
One opening rule of some importance is the safe opening of sparkling wines. After ripping off the foil top, unwinding the cage, keep a thumb over the cork, turn the bottle away from people, hold at 30º take a firm hold of the cork & with the other hand turn the bottle. The force of the gas pressure in the bottle will send a cork away from you at dangerous speeds, but not a bottle away from the cork at noticeable pressure. If the fizzy has been a bit shaken up on its way to your hands, as the house Champagne seemed to have been on its way to http://www.graze-restaurant.co.uk whilst I was there, then the covering of the cork with a clean tea towel, then holding it through that, prevents the cork shooting out of your control & covers any lively activity after that. Done with flourish this looks professional. Sparkling wines always go back in the ice bucket to keep them cool, so a tea towel around the neck to dry the bottle is obligatory wherever it's being served.
So looking professional with wine service, there's a code of practice here. Show the bottle of wine to whomever has ordered it. The oldest gentleman is not necessarily this person these days, & the 'host' has often had the most botox so determining the most senior is treacherous in dimly lit service spaces anyhow. This is for them to read the label. I have been thankful of the 'host' paying attention here on many occasions. Offhand 'I'll take the Pinot' could result in many a wine of many colours coming to the table, once they've said yes it's their issue. The other important thing they're reading is the vintage. Vintages run out, wine suppliers could tell the restaurant they've moved on, but this may not yet have been updated on the wine list. For certain wines this is significant, let the discerning customer make this choice. They get to taste the wine, only 50ml or so. They can say yes or no at this point. It could be wrong in any way, off, tainted, too young, or simply not typical of type. Whatever, it is my rule is to not serve it if the customer doesn't like it, each restaurant has its own feelings on this. Pour everyone else's glasses before returning to the 'host's'. How much? Well, in the ISO glass it was filled to the point where the bowl is widest, its safe to use the same rule with the glasses on the dinner table.
Breathing, not just whilst you're at the table, but the wine too. Whites & rosés don't need it, but, as I was corrected, ALL red wine opens up with some breathing, even the lightest Gamays. The more mature reds will need it to pour off the clean wine away from the sediment. The bottle must have settled for a day or so, so no shakey shakey on the way to the table. Best to decant away from the table after tasting. Do it against a light source, the romantic traditional way is in front of a candle. This is so you can watch the wine as it pours into the decanter, then as the sediment reaches the neck of the bottle stop pouring, this little bit is for the stock pot, not the wine glass. Even non-sedimented reds open more after decanting. It's the aeration that gets oxygen into contact with the wine, so allowing aromas to come out. This makes a huge difference to very tannic reds as after a while the fruit aromas become more pronounced. There is an optimum time for this, so more than a few hours is generally too much. If there is something up with the wine, especially brett taint, then it becomes more apparent as the flavours develop. Double decanting is sometimes done to speed this aeration up. In some establishments the bottle is cleaned out & the wine returned to it. What makes no difference is simply opening a bottle of wine. The surface area at the neck of the bottle is too narrow to have any impact on the wine. If all you're to do is let the wine breathe, pour a little into a glass, the customer's hopefully, so the surface of the wine is in the body of the bottle.
Which glass for what? Beautifully shown on http://www.davidstuff.com/wine/glasses.htm The best shape, like the ISO, is a tulip shape. This is to maximise the surface area of the wine in ratio to the enclosed area above. Max your olfactory stimulation this way. The air above the wine is where the enjoyment all begins, so don't generally fill the glass above the 2/3's mark. The mid 20th century fashion for Champagne in Coupés was a bit of sacrilege, Marilyn had generally spilt most of it whilst tripping over anyway. The progress of the bubbles up through the Champagne imbues them with the wine's flavour, so the longest route gives the most aroma. The flute always wins. The white & rosé glass is slightly smaller & tighter than the reds' to concentrate their aromas. The 'bowls' for red wine allow all the bigger aromas room to dance. Fortified wine glasses are smaller again, not just as the measure served is less, but as they have higher alcohol present that vapour should be allowed to dissipate to accentuate the fruit & floral aromas. Sherries & brandies too have their respective glassware that bring out their best attributes.
So there's the synopsis for bottle service, how about the 'by the glass' customer? Here there has been great debate on size. The Paris goblet? So beloved of Sharon Watts for a swift shot or 2 of Gin Angie-style when she needed a lil stiffna! That's really the best use of this 70's wine service globe, 125ml GS (Government Stamped) mark nicely eroded by the glass-washer over long reuse. There is no reason to have nasty glassware for glass service of wine. Any glasses can be sent off to get the GS, or wine can be measured before pouring into the glass to comply with licensing law. So again it's back to how much?
125ml was the standard glass of wine size for many a year, then 175ml appeared as large. As our habits changed & eating out became more normal 175ml took over as the norm. This resulted in 250ml becoming large, pushing the 125ml definitively into being small. This is all well & good for choice, though few establishments offer all 3 sizes. Problems have arisen with compliance with due diligence as a licensee as wines have increased in ABV (Alcohol by Volume) through the late 80's & 90's. Without going all maths teacher, I don't have the cardigan range, if wine were sold in 1 litre bottles the maths would be easy.
Wine at 8% would have 8 units in 1 litre. Wine is sold in 75cl bottles, so multiply the ABV * 0.75 to calculate the units of alcohol in a bottle. In this instance 8 * 0.75 = 6 units. Confused?
Well, that's easy, so how many units in a 'glass' of wine? This is very important for people counting their units, usually drivers. Wine from this bottle in a 125ml glass = 1 unit; in a 175ml glass = 1.5 units; in as 250ml glass = 2 units.
With no 'standard' for a 'glass' of wine the discerning or conscientious customer has a raft of questions to ask. More importantly the average ABV for most wines sold in the UK is upwards of 12%, that's at least half as much again as illustrated. With 175ml taking over as the 'standard' it pushes units consumed well over 2, even with food, dangerously close to a driver over the limit of their BAC (Blood Alcohol Concentration). This is what is used to measure the levels of ethanol in blood that causes intoxication. The speed of alcohol becoming ethanol in a person's blood stream is affected by gender, health, weight, recent food intake, personal absorption & metabolism just to name a few factors. So how large measures of wine should be served in & at what ABV to be responsible licensees is a hot topic.
'How much til I'm over the limit mate?'
'Just step in this medical examination chamber adjacent to the restaurant & I'll let you know after an hour of tests!'
You've the wine in the desirable glass at a size you are comfortable with, now you'd like food with it. Unless drinking the wine on its own or finishing it before food then compatibility is pretty important for complete enjoyment. Many people choose wine after choosing food, or choose wine that will partner many food styles to keep everyone happy. I like a G&T before dinner so I can choose the wine after food choices. This restaurant http://www.ilsanlorenzo.it/ won me over on their approach by presenting 1st the aperitif menu, the only wines being by the glass; then food menu; then & only then the wine list.
There is great debate in restaurants over food matching, especially when 'taster/grazing/degustation' menus offer a matching wines option.
It seems the golden rule on incompatibility is oily & salty foods don't partner tannic red wines well.
I'm going to run through the prescribed matches in the order of the Systematic Approach;
Intensity - Intensely flavoured food = Intensely flavoured wine. Not to be misread as heavy or rich.
Sweetness - Sweet food, also salty = Sweeter than the food sweet wine. Use the sweeties also with salted nuts & oily patés.
Acidity - Acidic food, also salty food = Acidic wines. Many tastings will show high acidity, that watering mouth feel.
Tannin - It's the red meats here = Tannic wines.
Body - Lighter flavours = Lighter bodied whites & reds. Often the steamed meats with light sauces. Intense,creamy, rich foods = Full bodied whites & reds. This is where the seared meats, creamed potatoes & slow-roasted foods partner the chewy wines.
This is a bit of an over simplification perhaps, but as I get through the tastings I shall note the classic pairings, as I cook I shall try some of these out myself too.
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