How To Be A Wine Snob Buying and Serving Tips,

Shwetha Nair is the Editor of iDiva.com. She loves words and is on a mission to save the world from misplaced headlines! She can be pacified with a soufflé anytime and is occasionally accused of ODing on the exclamation mark. A closet TV addict, you'll find her attached to a remote when she is not battling between her stubborn cynicism and resilient optimism. She lurks the world wide web 24*7 and her dying wish is to be buried in a book.

If you don't have a highly-developed nose and taste for wine, then you should just enjoy whatever else you can and move on to other better things in life.

This comment left by a very astute iDiva reader on How to Be a Wine Snob: Beginner's Guide got me thinking. Now, while I would love to agree with the sound logic of this statement, I simply can't!

When we don't think twice before going under the knife to get our aquiline or pug noses reshaped, pray tell me why can't we acquire a nose for wine? It's like saying that you love cinema but will not watch a Frederico Fellini film since you don't know Italian! 

For a beginner, developing a nose for wine is much like reading the "subtitles" in a foreign language film. You may flit between the text and images and struggle to grasp the finer nuances of the script and the cinematography the first time around. But on a second viewing, you understand and drink in much more. So, if you are beginning a relationship with wine, you are in for the long haul! 

And if you aren't blessed with a Blood Hound's nose, don't fret. Just read the subtitles, if not once, twice ;)

What to keep in mind while buying wine
The three thumb rules that I go by while buying wine have held me in good stead in not only making the right choices but also overcoming the fear of the unknown at the wine store :)

1) Most expensive does not mean quality.  2) Look for vintage (A vintage wine is one made from grapes that were all, or primarily, grown and harvested in a single specified year) and 3) Be willing to experiment – Trying something new can mean a new experience of smell, taste and well, ecstasy!

Abhijit Kabir, Director of Terroir India Wineries says beginners and connoisseurs alike, can do as he does. "To pick and buy wine, one of the most important factor I go by is its packaging. Once I choose a bottle, I look at the finer details of the vintage, the grape variety, the tasting notes (Tasting note refers to a taster's written testimony about the aroma, taste identification, acidity, structure, texture, and balance of a wine) and finally make my decision." The other option, Abhijit proposes to all is to go for what has been recommended purely by 'word of mouth'. "This would initially help but as I mentioned earlier, drinking wine is subjective so what may be my tipple of choice may not be the same as yours," adds Abhijit.

We all know how difficult it is to describe tastes and smells of wine in words alone. So, check out online wine communities like Bottlenotes which allows members to maintain their tasting notes online to tank up on tasting notes. 

Wine Serving Tips
When I bumped into wine consultant Gajanan Nayak at the Mumbai Wine Fest, little did I know that he was a treasure-trove of information on all things wine. Gajanan swears by these wine serving tips:

For Champagne / Sparkling Wines: The ideal temperature for a champagne or sparkling wine is 6 to 8 degrees. So these wines can be refrigerated for about 3 hours before serving in Indian climate conditions.

For White Wines & Rose's: The right temperature to serve these wines is between 8 to 10 degrees. So these wines can be refrigerated about an hour before serving in Indian climate conditions.

For Red Wine: Red wine should be ideally served at temperatures between 14 to 18 degrees. So these wines can be refrigerated for half an hour before serving in Indian condition. Also another important thing is to decant a redwine and allow it to breath for about 20 minutes to half an hour if you are drinking a good full-bodied red wine. This will allow the wine to open up and tannins to mellow down and become smother. By doing this the wine will taste at its best.

Cheese and wine pairing
Well, this could be another story altogether but as Prahalad Kakkar says "the purest way to enjoy a food and wine pairing is to compliment it with a cheese platter comprising cheese like Gorgonzola, Blue, Beaufort, Brie, Camembert, Cheddar, Gouda, Parmesan and throw in some figs and olives to top it off."



Storage tips
As the saying goes… Once you open a wine bottle, finish it! So what if I made up the saying, according to Gajanan, wine tends to lose some of its characteristics if opened and stored again. So, bottom's up people.

For Un-opened Wine:

1. Ideal temperature for storing wines could be anywhere between 14 to 18 degrees. There should not be much fluctuation in the temperature.  If one does not have a temperature-controlled wine cellar or chiller, then it must be stored in cool and dry place. Away from heat and sunlight.
2. If the wine has cork, then it should be stored horizontally (in a sleeping position). If it is with screw cap then it can also be stored vertically (standing). The idea is that the cork should be wet always or else it dries up and there is a possibility of small particles of cork mixing with the wine.

For Opened Wine:

1. Ideally, finish a wine bottle once it is opened. If you cannot, then vacuumise the bottle and seal it with the cork again. Vacuumiser's, available in the market, help to remove the oxygen from the bottle before sealing it again. If vaccumised, wine will remain fresh for about 4 to 5 days.
2. If one does not have a vacuumiser then it is better to seal the bottle again immediately as soon as it is opened and served. The wine can remain fresh for about a day or two.

Whatever be your choice of wine, red, white or blush - the older your relationship with this tipple, the better you'll like it!