Concerned that you are serving your Merlot too hot or cold?

Worried that you'll commit a social faux pas by giving your guests the wrong wine with your coq au vin?

Don't want to make a fool of yourself at a wine tasting?

Never fear my friend because Wine Buddy's Top Tips are here to help you.  

First things first - get the music right!

Top psychology experts reckon that matching your wine and your music choice can enhance the way that your wine tastes.

The brains from Heriot Watt University discovered that you can change the perceived taste by up to 60% depending on what melody you play.  This work was commissioned by a Chilean winemaker who already plays monastic chants to his maturing wines believing that will relax the wine and allow it to mature better.

So what music should you play?  Well, play “powerful & heavy” music to positively affect cabernet sauvignon whilst chardonnay drinking benefits from playing “zingy & refreshing” sounds.

So why not try a Cab Sav to the strains of “Honky Tonk Woman” by The Rolling Stones or enjoy a chilled Chardonnay with a dose of Robbie Williams’ “Rock DJ.” Maybe even grab a glass of merlot when “Sitting on the dock of the bay” with Otis Redding? Our experts were unable to find a wine match for any tune by Kenny G.

Back to top

Getting the bottle open.

An art in itself! For still wine, remove the top of the capsule by cutting round below the lip of the bottle. Gently pull the cork from the bottle with the corkscrew. Choose a corkscrew with a fine thread (I really like the ones made by Screwpull) and avoid big, clunky corkscrews.   That way you are less likely to drop chunks of cork into the bottle. This does not “cork” the wine but just makes the first glass look unsightly and that just would not do.

For sparklers, take the foil and the wire muzzle off first. Hold the cork immediately so it doesn’t fly off & hit the cat. Tilt the bottle holding both the cork and the bottle before gently turning the bottle and not the cork. Slowly release allowing the escaping gas to make a small “parp” rather than pretending to be a winning racer driver and wasting all that lovely fizz.

Of course you could always unlock your ceremonial sabre cupboard and decide to be excessively dramatic with tonight's "sparkler opening" performance.  Once again take the foil off.  Grasp the neck of the bottle at arm's length in your non-sabre holding hand.  Rest the bottle along your arm with the 'seam' of the bottle facing up.  Then run the blunt edge of your ceremonial sabre up the seam and pop off the top.  Danger: Don't do it with excessive ebullience or the bottle will smash.  But don't be timid or you will look stupid when the pop is not forthcoming.  I have seen a professional fencer deftly lift the cork off a Champagne bottle using the merest flick of an épée.  I have never witnessed any acts of swordsmanship from other professional tradesmen.

Back to top

Choosing the best wine glass for the occasion.

Top wine tasters have bulbous bottoms and small necks and that’s just the glasses they use to help swill the wine and gather all the taste aromas. You do not need to be quite so pedantic unless you want to be. So long as you have tulip shaped glasses or ones with a slight curve at the top then you can swill and aroma gather to your heart’s content.

Even filling the glass can be a real area of contention if you’re not careful. Too much wine and you’ll be considered vulgar whilst too little and your friends will look upon you as cheap. Just about a third-full is bang on.

Back to top

Serving your wine at the right temperature.

Getting the temperature right makes drinking wine much more fun as it maximizes the flavours within the wine. And just why wouldn’t you want to do that my friendly little wine buddy?

Room temperature: Leave to stand (decanted if you want) for an hour or so (14 - 17°C)

• Bitter-sweet reds. Big, warm & spicy reds. Intense & fruity reds. Mellow & silky reds.

Lightly Chilled: A quick hour in the fridge (12 - 14°C)

• Easy Drinking Reds
• Bold, rich whites. Mellow, rounded whites

Chilled: 1 to 2 hours in the fridge (10 - 12°c)

• Aromatic & fruity whites. Crisp & tangy whites. Clean, pure, dry whites. Rosés.

Well Chilled: 3 to 4 hours in the fridge (6 - 8°C)

• Sparkling sparklers
• Luscious, sweet wines.

There are a couple of easy mistakes to make which can really affect the taste of the wine you are serving:

Serving red wine too warm makes it taste "thick and soupy"

• Don’t be fooled by the term “room temperature.” It was coined long before the days of double-glazing, central heating & insulation when the temperature in the room was a few degrees cooler than we have now.
• On hotter days it can even work well to chill most red wines for 30 minutes or so before leaving them to stand.

Serving white wine too cold masks the flavours

• Why kill all the fun by keeping it for too long in a really cold fridge before serving?
• Some unscrupulous hosts may do this to get their guests drinking dodgy wine at their annual summer barbeque but it is definitely not the done thing with great tasting wine from Wine Buddy's cellar.

Back to top

The best way to chill wine quickly

There is a widely held belief that you will damage your wine in some way if you decide to chill it quickly.  Poppycock.

And now that myth is slain we need to make sure that the heat transfer from the wine is as rapid as possible.  So get yourself an ice-bucket full of ice and water, open the freezer or grab that gel-filled jacket that looks like a wine-waiter. 

Dump it in a ice-bucket filled with ice and water.  This gives tremendously close contact between the warmer wine and the chilling agent (the ice and water).  This allows the heat transfer from the wine to be very speedy indeed.

Stick it in the freezer.  But only for fifteen minutes or so to prevent the glass cracking or the wine freezing.  Once again you will speed up the heat transfer from the wine.

Use a cold gel-filled jacket.  Just keep these in the freezer ready for emergency chilling duty (they never freeze solid) and just slip it over the bottle.  This is an excellent way to provide the all-important close chilling contact and a very effective way of serving your favourite wine at the right temperature.

The fridge is rubbish for rapid chilling.  But is a good way for chilling your wine if you have planned ahead and have a little more time on your hands  (See "Serving your wine at the right temperature" for fridge chilling times).  The reason for the longer time to chill in the fridge is that air is a pretty lousy conductor of heat.  That's why we use the freezer for rapid chilling as the air is so cold that it compensates for it's inefficiency.

An ice-bucket with ice alone is not as effective as ice and water.  This is because ice alone will only provide sparse direct cold contact with the wine bottle whereas ice and water envelopes it.

Back to top

To decant or not to decant? That is the question.

Scientists could write a thesis on this. Indeed someone probably has and should in our opinion get out more. But there are a few reasons why you should decant:

• Top of the tree is the general school of thought that says it’s best to decant wines that have a heavy sediment. That way all the sediment is left in the bottle leaving you with uninterrupted tastes not marred by any floaters in your glass.
• But the top of all tips for decanting wines with sediment is to keep a steady hand.  Shaking the bottle will make your job all the harder.  So, yes, it is tough to decant on your yacht in a westerly gale or when the seatbelt signs come on at 22,000 feet.
• Even for younger wines it is worthwhile to take it out of the bottle and “leave it to breathe” for an hour or so.  This lets more of the flavours come to the fore.
• Finally decanting can simply make it look nice. And that goes for white wines and rosé too.  If you like things to look just so then who are we to argue - just enjoy the taste.

But just leaving it for an hour or so in the bottle de-corked is a waste of time so don’t bother yourself.

Back to top

What wine to match with what food?

Of course, there is one easy way to match the wine and the food.  Go with Wine Buddy's food match recommendations that are included with every wine on the Wine Buddy website.  Gee thanks Wine Buddy!

Alternatively, there are a few well tested principles that you can work to:

Match the weight or richness of the food with the body of the wine. 

• Big rich foods (like casseroles & roast meat) need a full-bodied wine (like many of the intense and fruity reds)
• Always remember the sauce as well.  If you have a big, creamy sauce in the dish then a bold, rich white would make a good choice.

Do not confuse flavour intensity with weight and match the flavour intensity of both wine and food

• Heavyweight food like pasta or potatoes on their own are limited in flavour whereas a classic, simple Italian Salad is full of flavour and light in weight.
• The trick here is match the flavour intensity of the wine with that of the food.  So don't match a Clear, Pure Dry White with braised beef - choose an Intense and Fruity red instead.

Match acidic foods with high-acid wines.

• Any sourness in a food makes a wine taste less acidic and therefore more clawing on your palate and less refreshing.
• So ramp up the acidic quota in the wine when serving acidic foods.  Crisp, tangy whites from the Wine Buddy cellar would fit the bill here.

Match sweet foods with sweet wines.

• Why do you think luscious, sweet wines work so well with desserts?
• Because dry, crisp wines seem over-acidic with your favourite sweet pudding that's why.

Pair red meat with high-tannin red wines.

• The tannin in the red wine is softened by the protein levels in such meats.
• Cab Savs or Shiraz are perfect for this and that's why you hear of them being paired with casseroles, steaks and barbecues so often.
• On the other hand low tannin reds like many of the easy drinking and mellow and silky reds work well with low protein, white meats.

Salty food works well with either sweet or high acid wines.

• Why does Port and Stilton work so well at Christmas? Why does Fino Sherry and olives go so well together?
• Well because of this principle of wine-food matching my friend.

Fatty or oily food goes with high acid wines.

• The acid seems to cut through the fat with consummate ease.
• That's why Sauternes and Fois Gras works so well.  The acidity present within the Sauternes brings out the best in the fat-laden Fois Gras.

A no go: Oily and salty food with red wines with a high tannin content.

• Just take Wine Buddy's word for it.  It leaves an unpleasant metallic taste in the mouth. Yuk!

Some great wine and food matches

• Sauvignon Blanc and Smoked Salmon
• Albarino and Shellfish
• Gewurtztraminer and spicy food
• Champagne and Fish 'n' Chips
• Shiraz and the barbecue
• Botyrised Semillon and your Mum's Apple Tart.

Back to top

What about storage?

The majority of wine available on www.wine-buddy.com is able can be enjoyed from the moment it arrives at your door.  These wines will be perfectly good if stored for a few months or so before cracking on and drinking.  Just don't put them next to the boiler, or the cooker or right by a window, especially one that sees a lot of the sun. 

We have a growing proportion of wines that will keep for several years and we give you an idea of how long you should be able to keep them in the detailed wine notes that are included on the site for every wine. Here are a few tips to help you store them safely until the time comes for you to enjoy the fruits of your patience:

• Don't leave them too long.  A wine opened when it has run up too many miles on the clock is a missed opportunity.  So translate any "Drink by" dates as "After this point you won't enjoy the wine as much you could have."  If you do open the wine too early then never fear as it can easily flourish when opened to the elements in your glass. 
• Keep bottles with corks on their side - it does no harm for screwcaps either. This keeps the cork nicely moist and swollen, reducing the chances of air getting in, spoiling the wine and encouraging sparklers to lose their fizz.
• Try to keep at a cool and constant temperature between 10 & 15°C. Too extreme and your taste enjoyment can be badly affected. Now we don’t want that do we? 
• Kitchens are often a nightmare to store wine due to the extremes in temperature unless you’ve got a fancy wine fridge. Well just look at you with all your new toys Captain Gadget!
• And once again avoid direct sunlight. If you are a Chardonnay lover, then your wine is particularly sensitive to the light.

Back to top

Getting the most from a wine tasting

The biggest debate about wine tasting is whether to spit or to swallow?  Well both answers are correct.  

If you have to taste lots of wine then you should spit.  You would find it impossible after only a few to determine the tastes between different wines and, therefore, which ones you liked the most.  Better to taste and spit out the lot before working out which you prefer.  That way you can choose to savour the one or two that you have most enjoyed at the end of the tasting.  In this case, spitting is not wasting - it's tasting.  Anyway, drinking that much wine in one go is not good for your constitution.

If you only have a couple of wines to taste then swallow and enjoy.

Back to top

ABV and units. What's the score?

Current medical advice puts the recommended maximum consumption of alcohol per week at no more than 21 units for men and 14 units for women. Similarly, men should limit consumption of alcohol to 3-4 units per day and women to 2-3 units. Regular consumption over these limits can lead to health issues.

But how can you know how many units you’re consuming? By knowing the size of the glass that you pour at home and the alcoholic strength (ABV) of the wine you are drinking allows you to work it out.  

Wine Buddy reckons that the average size of a glass poured at home is around 175ml but also included are the measures you regularly see in bars and restaurants (125ml and 250ml).  When being sensible with your consumption it makes enormous sense to choose fabulous tasting wine (rather than any old stuff) and then to savour the taste sensations.  Now I know a Wine Buddy that could help you out there.

As a special service for our aspiring mathematician wine buddies we can exclusively give you the formula for calculating alcoholic units (Don't say that Wine Buddy is anything but generous).

Alcoholic Units = ABV x Litres 

So if you have a 250ml glass of 12% ABV wine the alcoholic units would be 3 (12% x 0.25ltr = 3 units).  Next time you are in the pub arguing over units with your friends you will be smug in the satisfaction that you have the right answer.

Back to top