Red Wines are usually served at a cool room temperature (54 -65 degrees), Whites usually served a little warmer than they would be when you first take them out of the refrigerator  (41-50 degrees)

It is better to serve wine too cold than too warm—you can always warm a glass in your hand

Fill wine glasses no more than 2/3s full, the space at the top of the glass gives room for the wine’s full aroma

If you don’t finish off the bottle at once, you can save both reds and whites in the refrigerator.  Just let the red wine warm up for a few minutes before drinking.

Wine bottles with traditional corks must be stored on their side to prevent the corks from drying out. Synthetic corks do not have this issue and may be stored upright.

Some studies actually proved that synthetic corks are actually better at keeping wine from losing it’s flavor.

The vintage on the bottle indicates the year in which the grapes were harvested, not necessarily when it was bottled.

When you see reserve on the label, it indicates some of that years harvest was specially aged.

A fortified wine has alcohol added to it during the fermenting process, thus giving it a higher alcohol by volume number.  That number can be 17 to 24 percent, while regular wine ranges from 8.5 to 15 percent.

The four main types of fortified wine are: Port, Sherry, Madeira, and Marsala.

Port takes it’s name because it was first made in Portugal, Sherry was first made in Spain.

More than 90 percent of the world’s grapes come from the European species Vitis Vinifera.  It was first found in Asia and has become the most common grapevine in the world, with many related varieties.

Wine Terms:

Balance:           Wine in which no characteristic is stronger than the others
Complex:          Wine with a number of good flavors and qualities
Finish:               The way wine fades or leaves your mouth when swallowed 
Nose:               The aroma of the wine
Palate:              The way wine feels in your mouth
Weight:             The texture and “heft” of a wine.  Wines can be thick or thin, heavy or light.

To experience the full flavor of each wine, always taste dry wines before sweet wines, and light wines before heavy wines.

Some claim that immediately soaking a red wine stain with white wine and then rubbing salt gently onto that with a sponge will do the trick.

The standard wine bottle holds 750 milliliters, which equates to 25.4 ounces or about 4/5 of a quart.

A half bottle of a 750 ml is known as a Demi, a quarter bottle is known as a Split, and double bottle; 1.5 Liters is known as a Magnum.

Sparkling wine is made from “still wines.”  The base wine is blended with yeast and sugar in a sealed container.  The carbon dioxide formed during fermentation is trapped in the wine, which is what makes it bubbly.

The celebration of the release of Beaujolais Nouveau (New Beaujolais) begins at one minute past midnight on the third Thursday of November.  It’s a tradition that has become worldwide, with restaurants and bistros rushing to be the first to serve this quickly fermented and bottled red wine from France.  It is a light tasting red wine best served chilled.