Lets face it- A good bottle of red or white wine can be ruined by a clumsy service: here are the rules to be followed in order to open and pour the wine, surprising guests and commensals
Serving wine at table is not a simple practice and, indeed, in case it is sufficiently faced by inexperienced hands, it can be the cause of embarrassing embarrassments. As a matter of fact, there are precise rules codified during decades of experience by sommeliers and wine professionals. Whether you are at a convivial dinner, at a family lunch or at a gallant meeting, here is what you must do in order to serve wine at the table correctly, avoiding mistakes and distractions.
How to serve wine at table
Serving wine in the right way is a sign of elegance and respect towards the guest in front of us. It is not important to offer a performance of a professional sommelier, it is enough to behave with style and follow the correct procedure. After having taken the bottle from the refrigerator or from our cellar, we bring it to the table keeping it in an upright position and clearly showing the label. We must tell our guests the name of the wine, the cru (that is the single grape variety from which the wine was produced, if known), the vintage and the producer. In case we want to show all our competence, we can also give further details by describing the varieties used, the vinification process, the aging process or the alcohol by volume. The explanation, however, must be done keeping in mind the level of interest of the person in front of us: we must not bore or show sterile notionism. We should present the bottle to the left of our guest and then serve it in the glass from the right.
How to open the bottle
The phase of the opening of the bottle begins by cutting the capsule by using the small knife of the corkscrew, possibly, without rotating the bottle: with a little practice, this quick wrist play can be easily done. Once the capsule has been removed, the tip of the spiral of the corkscrew is inserted into the cork. This is the most delicate step because we must be careful not to let the tip come out from the opposite side of the cork, which would cause cork fragments to fall into the wine. At this point, the lever of the corkscrew is placed on the edge of the bottle in order to extract the cork gently and avoiding cracks and noises: in fact, it happens, when one is in a hurry, that not very elegant sounds are heard at the moment the cork is being removed and air starts entering the bottle. When the cork is almost completely out from the neck of the bottle, let's conclude the extraction by hand. Let's clean the neck of the bottle from any possible residual with a napkin, let's get our nose near the cork in search of any possible defect, let's serve the wine avoiding to let any drop fall on the tablecloth, maybe with the help of a cloth.
