|
The
Expert French Wine Gift Giver
An expert wine lover
and gift giver is an "amateur', in the understanding of good wine. He is able
to appreciate the different qualities, or faults, of a wine.
When ordering wine gifts he is aware of what he may expect by the name of
a wine.
He knows which wine gifts
are usually preferred with what foods but still feels entirely
free to follow his own preferences. He knows that great and old
wines should be treated carefully but he also knows that younger
wines are handled in a more casual manner. He always
drinks moderately.
As expert as a wine
lover may be, he is still an
“amateur",
He does not know, in fact does not need to know, what
professional experts spend their lives in learning,
 When it comes down
to its “raison
d'être" wine is made to be enjoyed by the amateur. The test of
the wine is in the taste. An educated taster may discover more
subtle qualities, he may better appreciate the degree of
perfection achieved by a specific wine.
The most expert wine
taster has an exquisitely refined taste and a tremendous frame
of references, but he has, basically, the same taste as we ail
have. He has started as we ail do. with an uneducated palate and
no terms of comparison.
He has learned the
only way there is to learn through attentive drinking, trying to
analyze what he likes or dislikes and remembering as well as he
can the character of each wine tasted. After years and years of
experiments, the professional expert has developed a keener
taste. but not a different one.
French wines have
been drunk for centuries in all the known world, and as
new lands were discovered. French wines won new markets and new
devotees.
Anybody may become a
connoisseur and once he is one, his tastes are as valid as
anybody elses. When experimenting with wine it is well for one
to remember that:
· Unopened bottles may be kept
for a few months, even under poor conditions, without any bad
effects to the wine. If you don't have the facilities to build a
good wine cellar, you can stock a few cases of wine if they are
to be drunk in a matter of months.
-
When some wine is
left in a bottle after dinner, by recorking the bottle, the
wine will keep for a few days - much longer if it is a white
or rosé wine which is kept in the refrigerator.
-
The sense of taste
is not hopelessly spoiled by one drink of a stronger beverage
before the meal. What spoils the taste (for wine as for
anything else, including food) is an excess of "drinks" before
eating.
-
Smoking does not
dull the taste for people who are regular smokers. However.
better not smoke at the same time as you are drinking wine
because of the lingering aroma of the smoke. Eat a small piece
of bread or a piece of food before drinking in order to
re-establish a neutral background.
People who are
occasional smokers may find that smoking before a wine tasting
does impair their taste.
-
Estate or chateau
bottled wines represent only a minute portion of all the wine
produced in France. Parish and regional wines entitled to an
“Appellation Contrôlée” or a "V.D.Q.S." are very high quality
wines. They represent no more than 10% of the total
crop of France, the first wine producing country in the world.
-
A wine basket is
lovely but it does not serve any purpose at the dinner table.
Its only purpose is to carry the wine from the cellar without
shaking the bottle unnecessarily.
When serving, if the
wine has sediment, the rocking resulting from pouring from a
basket will move the sediment and carry it into all the wine; if
there is no sediment the wine basket does not do any harm - nor
any good either.
|
