To get the most out of your wine tasting experience, the final step is in the way you serve it. To ensure you can savour all its finest aromas and flavours, consideration should be given to the temperature at which you serve your wine and the selection of appropriate glassware. For quality red wines, the use of a decanter will aerate the wine, releasing even more flavour. Decanting full-bodied, long-aged red wines can greatly improve your tasting experience. Most people assume that all white wines ought to be served cold and all reds at room temperature – some will even warm their reds. But this is not always the case and may have a negative impact on the taste. Serving a wine too cold will conceal its flavour, while serving it too warm can make it taste dull, flat and alcoholic. There are no hard and fast rules and personal preference is important too – something that will come only from experimentation and by gaining as much tasting experience as you can. Many young Italian reds, like Dolcetto, young Chianti and Valpolicella, are at their best from 50 – 60˚f. 

Mature, oak-aged reds are preferable at 60-64˚f. Italian whites are perhaps easier to manage – although as most refrigerators are kept at 35-40˚f it is perhaps better to lift them out shortly before you intend to drink them, so as not to over-chill them. best wine clubs canadaSparkling wines are best served just slightly colder than still whites. best wine making kitsRosé wines are often a matter of personal preference – some prefer them at the same temperature as whites although styles vary greatly from dry to the off dry modern "blush" wine. best food with port wineSome will say it is better to serve wine too warm than too cold. best red wine nz

Again, this is a matter of opinion. But ask yourself when you are drinking a chilled wine: has its flavour improved since it has been out of the fridge? best italian red wine 2015Can you taste delicate nuances of flavour that you could not before?red car wine club Decanting is important for getting the most out of red wines – a fine Brunello, Amarone or Barolo will undoubtedly benefit but in fact any full-bodied red can be substantially improved by decanting. The best decanters will have a wide base in which the wine will rest so that the maximum surface area is exposed to the air. Wines that have been in bottle for a long time will be closed and difficult to taste, and simply pulling the cork will do little to aerate them. The other benefit of decanting an old wine is to remove the sediment that gathers in the bottle. You should pour the wine very gently into the decanter to ensure that the sediment remains in the bottle.

Aim to decant your wine between 30 minutes to 1 hour before you intend to drink it. A selection of fine wine glasses, suitable for different types of wine. And finally, do not underestimate the importance of good wine glasses. The very best are made from lead crystal which has the advantage of allowing the wine to breathe more when it is swirled. But the shape is as important as the quality of glass – the glass should be shaped so as to allow a good swirl to release the aroma of the wine, with a long stem that you can hold on to so as your hand does not heat up the wine inside. The top of the glass should be narrower than the widest part of the bowl, to allow for swirling. And of course, the glass should be appropriate for the wine you are drinking – particularly for sparkling wine. The traditional flute is not just an attractive and celebratory glass, its narrow surface area and extra height ensure that the wine remains fresh and bubbly. To see for yourself, try decanting half a bottle of an average red wine and pouring two glasses, one straight from the bottle in a tumbler, and one from the decanter into your best wine glass.

Taste them side by side – the decanted wine from the glass will undoubtedly taste superior. Decanting is important for getting the most out of red wines. Decanters are used for serving wines that are laden with sediments in the original bottle. These sediments could be the result of a very old wine or one that was not filtered or clarified during the winemaking process. High quality wine glasses are often made of lead crystal, not only because of their aesthetic advantages. Generally, the opening of the glass is not wider than the widest part of the bowl, allowing wine to swirl and breathe efficiently inside the bowl. A long stem is required to to prevent the temperature of the wine from being affected by body heat. The cleaning of the glassesHow should wine be served? There are times when a tumbler, filled with rough red wine and served to friends with a bowl of pasta, is all that is necessary. Most of the time, if you have taken the trouble to select a fine wine, why not give it proper treatment?

addition to serving the wine in clean, clear glassware of the appropriate shape and capacity, it is useful to serve wine at the proper temperature, which varies with the type of wine. And when the guests have gone, there are ways to preserve any leftover wine for enjoyment later on. of different shapes of wineglasses—specialists have developed glasses for most of the major wine varieties and regions—but you could start out with two basic types: the classic red-wine glass, which is fine for all sorts of table wine (even for port and sherry), and the sparkling wineAs your wine knowledge increases, you can build up your Avoid tinted or colored wineglasses, as they hide the appearance of the wine. Also to be avoided are glasses with wide mouths, especially for Champagne, since sparkling wine loses its bubbles too quickly and the aroma escapes before it can reach your It is important to look after your wineglasses carefully.

Keep them in a closed cupboard, free of dust and distracting odors, and stand them upright to avoid trapping stale air in the bowl. glasses below have different capacities and shapes to suit differentThere are many other traditional glasses that can be used for serving other wines, such as Riesling and Chianti. tulip-shaped glass has plenty of room in the bowl to swirl the wine and sample the bouquet, which is concentrated around the rim of the glass. WineThis glass has a smaller bowl than the red-wine glass, as white wine's bouquet does not develop as dramatically as that of red. Wine FluteThe narrow shape of this glass preserves the bubbles and directs them vertically up the glass. wines release their aromas very quickly, so the wider bowl and tapering sides of this glass have been designed to maximize the aromas. BordeauxThis large glass, with its gently tapering sides, provides maximum contact with the air, allowing the aroma and flavor of red

Bordeaux and similar wines to develop. traditionally served in small quantities, and this slim, tapering glass allows you to serve the correct quantity while allowing room in the bowl to swirl and appreciate vintage port's complex bouquet. suitable for serving most fortified wines but is larger than the SherryThe narrow and slightly tapering shape of this glass, which is called a copita, is perfect for capturing the remarkable bouquet of good Spanish sherry. Tasting GlassThis roomy glass funnels the wine's bouquet straight toDeveloped by the International Standards Organization (ISO), it is a superb professional tasting glass, but because it is made of very thin glass, it is not suitable for everyday people decant any wine served, while others never decant at all. best approach is somewhere between these two extremes. fine vintage port or an older red wine that might have thrown a sediment, you should decant for clarity, leaving the sediment in the

At the other end of the scale, some very young wines should beThis aerates the wine and helps soften the youthful When decanting an older wine, set the bottle upright for several hours, or even a couple of days, prior to opening andPull the cork carefully so as not to disturb the sediment, which should have settled to the bottom of the bottle. gently and steadily with a light beneath the neck of the bottle, so that you will be able to see the sediment when you reach it. look romantic, but a flashlight will get the job done just as well. you can see the sediment, stop pouring. If you don't want to bother with decanting a bottle of wine, pour off half a glass an hour or two before you wish to drink it. This will increase the surface area of wine exposed to the air and allow it to breathe. cork an hour ahead of drinking does not let the wine breathe to any The bouquet of older wines fades quickly, so they should be decanted immediately before drinking.

some big Italian wines, such as Barolo) benefit from being left in the decanter for several hours before drinking. When decanting a younger wine, just hold the bottle upright and let it glug and splash into the The choice of decanter is mostly a matter of personalAs with wineglasses, decanters should be clear; lightweight enough to pass around the table without great effort. are a number of ways to chill white wine (or red wine, if it is too warm) to the correct temperature for serving. For real emergencies, when there is no ice available, put a bottle in the freezer for 10 to 15Don't forget about it, or you will end up with a frozen bottle of uncorked wine on your hands—wine expands as it freezes and pushes the cork out of the bottle. As a general rule, freezers are best avoided. fast chilling, the refrigerator itself is a poor method. refrigerators are set at between 39°F and 45°F. At that temperature, it can take an hour or more to lower the temperature of a bottle of wine by

The best method by far is to put the wine in an ice bucket or wine cooler with a mixture of ice and water—water conducts heat and will draw warmth from the bottle fairly swiftly. temperature of a bottle of wine fully submerged in water and ice can drop 10°F in 10 to 15 minutes. Ice cubes alone, surrounded by air, are not effective, since air is a poor conductor of heat and cannot therefore extract heat from the bottle. Once the wine is chilled, you can keep it at the correct temperature at the table for a few hours by placing the bottle in an insulated container. cooler is useful for chilling wine quickly. Place the cooler in the freezer for a few hours, then wrap it around an unchilled bottle of wine—it will cool the wine in a few minutes and will keep it cool for aAn insulated stainless-steel cooler keeps already-chilled If you want to take the chill off red wine, one method is to decant the wine into a decanter warmed with