TALES OF THE VINE

Decanting is one of those arcane subjects surrounding wine that confuse and intimidate many wine lovers who are not versed in the subject.

Basically, decanting is pouring wine from one vessel into another vessel. In terms of wine service decanting specifically means pouring wine from its bottle into a glass vessel called a decanter, which is designed for the purpose and looks a bit like a glass vase.

There are four reasons why you might want to decant a wine.

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I will never forget dining at a particular restaurant in Bordeaux, which is quite famous and difficult to obtain a reservation for ? unless you knew somebody.

As a visiting American winemaker, I was something of a curiosity, but managed to secure a table at 8 pm on a Friday. Anticipating an evening of fine French dining I asked to see the sommelier while I perused the wine list.

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In my last blog I recommended you keep a notebook listing your favorite wines and choose unfamiliar wines either by the brand, place of origin or varietal. Otherwise, shopping for wine is a bit l like playing Russian roulette with your wallet.

There can be no opportunity to discover a great wine bargain unless you are willing to assume some risk of making a mistake. The quandary is always how to tell the gems from the dogs if you are not familiar with the wine you are thinking about buying. To improve the odds any wine you buy offer good value for your hard earned money, I will present a few more tips and suggestions in this week’s column.

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According to the statistics, most wine is consumed within 24 hours of purchase. Another way of saying this is that most wine is bought in a hurry.

As we all know, it is much easier to make a mistake when buying something on impulse than when we take time to do a little research first.

Since it seems to me most of us living here in the Pearl of the Andaman are too busy in our daily lives to find time for researching wines I decided to outline some helpful smart shopping tips for wine buyers.

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