Wine

To make the best of your chosen wine, here are some useful suggestions on how to serve, decant, and store.

Temperatures

The rule of thumb is: red wine at 'room temperature', and white wine and champagne should be chilled. Nevertheless, excessive chilling can kill the taste. Also, rooms were some five degrees cooler when the tradition began, so whether warming or cooling, do it gently.

Decanting

While most wines are largely free of sediment, this traditional practice is especially apt when, say, a red wine is over ten years old, and needs aerating (don't rush, keep an eye on the sediment). It is also worth aerating a young wine that is full of tannin (a strong red, say) and many white wines that can be yeasty. Experiment – see the difference a Royal Doulton decanter makes.

Breathing

A common alternative to decanting, this should take one or two hours – after all, opening a small aperture on 70cl of wine will have little effect over a few minutes.

Serving

To get the best out of a wine, pour until the glass is just a third full and gently swirl to appreciate the emerging bouquet and flavours...enjoy.

Storing After Opening

It's quite simple - oxygen makes wine deteriorate. A good wine isn't just for one day, or one night - you can return your white to the fridge with an appropriate seal top, and re-cork the red (or use it for cooking), but not too tightly. As for a timescale, we are talking days, the sooner the better. Furthermore, you can fill a bottle with inert gas, but that's another issue.

Storing Wine Generally

To keep your wine in contact with the cork, store it laid down or tilted – hence the phrase 'laying down' for vintages. It should also be stored in a cool room with a temperature that averages 11 degrees centrigrade, is not subject to strong light, or damp. In the modern home, that can mean the dining room, under the stairs, rather than a wine cellar…there's usually a niche.