Serving the wine

Uncorking

Uncorking a great bottle of wine is a magic moment! If the bottle has no sediment, then no prior preparation is required. Once the desired temperature has been reached, continue as follows:

• Cut the capsule below the bottle lip, either with the corkscrew blade or with a capsule-cutter.
• If any wine is seen to have leaked through the cork, or if fungus is present, clean with a cloth before removing the cork.
• There are countless corkscrew models, however very few are really functional. Avoid those spiral ones with a short pitch and sharp edges (drill type). Always seek models with a long spiral and, if possible, Teflon coated.
• Always work gently and with no jerks, ensuring that the bottle is in an upright position, well supported on a table: wine detests bad handling.
• Once the cork has been removed, examine it and smell the part that was in contact with the wine.
• If the cork still shows signs of impurities, re-clean the bottle neck.
• If the cork has deteriorated due to mould or the length of time (bottles that are more than 20 years' old), use a two-pronged cork extractor.

Decanting the wine

Decanting the bottles is an operation consisting in separating the wine from the sediment formed during the ageing process. However, this operation always involves a certain degree of aeration, in other words oxygen dissolution which, depending on the wine being decanted, can be either beneficial or harmful.

With regard to the long-standing doubt as to the necessity of opening a bottle a while before serving, the answer is a clear and simple: no.

If a wine requires aerating before consumption, the gaseous interchange that takes place through the bottle neck is practically non-existent as the contact surface is very small. In this case, the bottle contents should be transferred to a spacious decanter to give the required aeration.

In an attempt to give some general guidelines, the aeration will be positive for powerful Crianza wines, full of youth and tannicity. This will bring out and intensify the aromatic potential of the wine.

However, much caution is needed when aerating a mature bottle with a delicate and fragile bouquet; this may be totally ruined by an abrupt and inadequate aeration. In these cases, a basket handled with care may be sufficient to ensure that the sediment is not served.

How to decant

• You should ideally be in a very well-lit place with a clear background (white tablecloth) in order to easily see the bottle bottom and the decanter neck. A candle can also be used to help you see more clearly.
• The bottle must have been standing for at least two hours (or better still, since the day before).
• Once you have started to decant, complete the process with no interruptions.
• Do it slowly, unhurriedly, to avoid disturbing the sediment in the wine.
• If you are decanting a very old wine, let the liquid slip smoothly down the decanter sides in order to limit the oxygenation as much as possible.
• If you are seeking to oxygenate the wine and there is no sediment present (the operation is then called wine aerating), get a large sized bottle and transfer the wine energetically, so that the liquid impacts against the glass and enhances the result.