Wine Basics - Introduction to Wine, Wine Drinking

Opening wine bottles is difficult for many people, but opening bottles of champagne or sparkling wine creates more difficulties because of the pressure created by the carbonation of the wine — and the pressure of looking good without braking anything. Removing corks from champagne bottles is a little more dangerous because the pressure of the carbonated wine can force the cork out at high velocity, breaking glass or damaging an eye. Opening champagne and sparkling wine isn't difficult, but must be done with care.

As if people weren't already intimidated enough by wine generally and ordering wine in restaurants, their wine is usually served in what appears to be a needlessly complex ritual that almost seems designed to make a person either feel like an ignorant outsider or a snobbish insider. Yes, there is a bit of ritual involved with serving wine but each part of this wine ritual serves a purpose — generally to help ensure that you get the right wine and enjoy your wine experience. Learn to enjoy the wine ritual along with your wine.

Successful wine and food pairing can be daunting, but it's worth experimenting with matching wine and food because the right combination creates flavors that are vastly superior to how the wine and food taste independently. There are many different factors to consider when pairing food and wine, but first it's helpful to look at the big picture: the different levels of success or failure one can achieve when pairing wine with food, from poor to refreshing, good, and synergistic pairings.

Body is an important characteristic of wine. Whether a wine is full bodied, medium bodied, or light bodied will help determine which foods pair best with it, when it is best to drink it, and even whether you are likely to enjoy drinking it. Unfortunately, wine body is also a characteristic that is difficult to explain and learn to understand. It's not like sweetness, acidity, or a citrus flavor that is easy to recognize. It takes time and experience to learn how to differentiate between full bodied, medium bodied, and light bodied wines.

Many people experience some anxiety over removing corks from wine bottles because they don't want to make any mistakes that damage the wine or make them look foolish. A common problem when removing corks is probably pieces of cork falling into the wine — either a few tiny pieces or even a large section of cork. Most people worry too much about not looking sophisticated with wine and they shouldn't worry a lot about getting cork in wine. Everyone does it and it's not hard to fix.