My views on wine service both in a restaurant and at home

Here are my views on wine service:

I preach these simple points to my employees and I believe that it is also valid when you serve wine in your house.

The first and most important point is to provide clean and odorless vessels, too often the glasses and decanters have been kept on the shelves after coming out of the dishwasher, the chemicals have now dried out and they have imparted a distinct musty, cardboard smell and taste to your wine.

Rinse your glasses and decanters before use; I also recommend that you hand towel them to get rid of unsightly spots on the glass.

Use appropriate glassware as much as possible, by that I mean a glass big enough that you can swirl the liquid and enjoy its aroma, remember, we taste mainly with our noses.

Do not overfill the glasses when pouring from your bottle, 1/3 of the glass is the proper amount and 1/2 is all right: I do not want my guests to feel that I am trying to rush the wine service or force them to order another bottle, plus if you are having Champagne or

white wine it would get warm up too much.

Taste the wine before pouring to the guests, it is an accepted statistic that at least 5% of all bottles are tainted (corked), it will smell musty, “cardboardy”, generally nasty! Remember if this happens, your wine shop (usually) or restaurant will replace it at no cost, provided you have not finished the bottle!!!

So now, just enjoy and remember: “in vino, veritas!”