Whether you’re a seasoned connoisseur or a budding enthusiast, every bottle of wine holds the promise of an extraordinary experience. In this blog, we delve into the fascinating world of wine with a focus on unlocking its full potential. We will share some insider knowledge and handy tips to help you discover the hidden depths within each wine bottle, from the proper storage conditions to handy gadgets and understanding how to taste wine correctly.
Getting The Most Out of Your Bottle of Wine: 5 Tips and Tricks
1. Age Your Wine
Just as we evolve, mature, and improve with age, so does wine. The colour, aroma, taste, and feel of wine all transform over time. Of course, only some readers may have a wine cellar at their disposal, but fortunately, you don’t need one to store and age wine well.
Here are some key considerations when ageing and storing wine at home:
- Ideal Temperature Ageing Bottle of Wine: Maintain a temperature between 11-14˚c for your wine. Cooler temperatures might dry out the cork, while warmer ones can hasten the ageing process.
- Light and Your Bottle of Wine: Keep your wine away from direct sunlight to prevent it from going stale prematurely.
- Positioning The Bottle of Wine: If possible, store your wine horizontally to avoid air leakage into the bottle that could cause premature oxidation.
- Avoid Disturbances: Minimise disturbances to your bottle of wine. Vibrations can agitate the tannins, which isn’t ideal for long-term ageing.
- Location Location Location: Avoid storing wine in the kitchen or garage, as these areas experience significant variables in temperature, sunlight, and humidity.
Once you’ve identified the perfect spot to store your wine at home, age your wine for approximately two to three years; after this amount of time, you can expect some changes in its flavour profile as it ages. Younger wines usually exhibit more floral and vibrant fruit flavours like black cherry, currant, and boysenberry. In contrast, older wines often develop more savoury, earthy tones like cedar, leather, and autumn leaves.
Ideally, ask the winemaker how long to age the wine as different wines have different ageing potentials. Depending on many factors, some wines shouldn’t be aged longer than 3 years, but some wines can be aged for up to 50 years or more.
2. Aerators: What Do They Do to Your Bottle of Wine?
An aerator serves the purpose of oxygenating a glass of wine to enhance its flavour and aroma. For instance, if a bottle of nice red wine promises notes of cherry, cloves and blackberry, an aerator can accentuate these flavours. It can also mellow particular tastes in the wine, making it more enjoyable.
Given that most wine buyers will drink their purchases within months, if not weeks or days, and may not be interested in or have time for wine ageing, an aerator could be pretty helpful. It can reveal the subtleties of certain flavours that would otherwise take years to emerge.
3. Let Your Bottle of Wine Breathe With a Decanter
The process of allowing a wine to breathe varies depending on the wine’s age and how long ago it was bottled. A wine that is less than three years old typically requires little to no breathing time. On the other hand, a wine that’s a decade or older would benefit from an hour of exposure to air.
In terms of letting your wine breathe, you could simply uncork a bottle and let it stand for an hour. If you wish to reduce this time, pouring it into a decanter will expose the wine to more air and surface area. Every wine can benefit from some breathing time. Allowing wine to breathe amplifies its aromatic profile, thereby enhancing your sensory experience.
4. Use the Correct Wine Glass for the Bottle of Wine
Red wine glasses are typically taller and have larger bowls compared to white wine glasses. This design encourages more contact between the wine and oxygen. Since red wine often needs more time to ‘open up’, a bigger bowl provides more surface area for the wine to breathe, thus releasing its aroma and flavours.
In contrast, white wine glasses are usually shorter and have smaller bowls compared to red wine glasses. This design brings the wine closer to your nose since the aromas of white wines are generally subtler.
5. Tasting Tips for Your Bottle of Wine
Step 1: On The Nose
It might be challenging initially to look beyond the vinous aroma, but a helpful method is to switch between brief, sharp sniffs and slow, lengthy inhalations. Have a look at the tasting notes and see if you can detect the aromas mentioned by the winemaker.
Step 2: Master the Swirl
Swirling wine actually amplifies the release of aromatic compounds into the air. Consider watching a quick tutorial on how to swirl wine properly. Also, pay attention to the legs (the lines that appear on the glass after swirling) as they are an indication of the alcohol or sugar content of the wine and indicate a fuller-bodied or richer textured wine.
Step 3: Discover More Tastes During Sampling Your Bottle of Wine
Consider taking a large sip of wine initially, followed by several smaller ones. This allows you to identify and distinguish flavours. Concentrate on one taste at a time. Always start with broad flavour categories before narrowing down to specific ones, for example, transitioning from the broad category of black fruits to more specific flavours like dark plum, roasted mulberry, or jammy blackberry.
Bottle of Wine: Frequently Asked Questions
How Many Glasses of Wine in a Bottle?
Wine bottle sizes and wine bottle dimensions can differ quite a bit. A typical wine bottle holds 750ml and provides approximately 5 glasses of wine, while a magnum wine bottle, a big bottle of wine) contains 1.5l (twice the size of a standard bottle), offering around 10 glasses of wine.
How Many Calories in a Bottle of Red Wine?
A standard bottle of wine contains 5 glasses, and a big bottle (magnum) would then contain 10 glasses of wine. If one glass of wine contains about 133 calories, then a standard bottle of wine would contain about 665 calories, double that in a magnum wine bottle.
What is the Average Alcohol Content in a Bottle of Red Wine?
Red wine alcohol percentage typically ranges from 12% to 15%, averaging around 13.5% ABV. This is generally higher than what you’ll find in white wines. Red wine grapes are often picked late in the harvest season, which means they contain more sugar than the grapes used for white wines. As a result, during fermentation, these sugars translate into a higher alcohol concentration in the red wine bottle.
HER Wine Collective
HER Wines is a pioneering wine enterprise that stands out in the South African wine industry for its all-black, all-female team. The entire journey of the wine, from vineyard to winemaking to bottling, marketing and distribution, is managed by an exceptional team of black women. Our incredible team values the sharing of knowledge, mutual inspiration, and building relationships within the varied communities of South Africa.
HER WINES: Wines Available
HER Wine Collection Pinotage 2022: Leaves a lasting impression on the palate with its luscious, mature red berry flavours and fragrant, spicy undertones. This medium-bodied wine is characterised by its silky tannins. The ageing potential for our Pinotage is 1-5 years from the year of vintage.
HER Wine Collection Shiraz 2022: Featuring a blend of deep dark berry flavours and nuances of vanilla and spice, resulting in a captivating, complex wine. This medium-bodied offering possesses depth and leaves a long-lasting impression on the palate. Ageing potential for this wine is 1-5 years from the year of vintage.
HER Wine Sauvignon Blanc 2023: A fruity, zesty crowd-pleaser with flavours of passion fruit, pineapple and lemon and is best served chilled. Ageing potential for this bottle of wine is within 1 year from the year of vintage.
HER Wine Chenin Blanc 2023 is a bold, flavourful wine with tropical fruit aromas and flavours of yellow apple, green melon and white pear that’s guaranteed to delight and impress. Ageing potential for our Chein Blanc is 1-3 years after the year of vintage.