Brush Up On Your Wine Etiquette This Holiday Season

With Tips Brought To You By Blue Heron Fine Wine & Spirits

December 16, 2006 - Glastonbury, CT - The holidays here. Soon the weekends will be filled with holiday soirees and family gatherings. But are you prepared? Do you know the proper way to serve wine, how to pour without dripping or how to swirl your wine? This holiday season brush up on your wine etiquette with tips brought to you by Blue Heron Fine Wine & Spirits, a new wine store that makes the wine experience enjoyable for connoisseurs and even the most inexperienced wine drinkers.

Serving Wine

1. Serving wine - At a dinner party women and older guests should be served first, then men, and finally the host.
2. Proper temperature - Wine taste is altered by temperature and environment. Keep red table wines standing for 24 hours in advance and chill your white and rose wines for one hour in a refrigerator. Sparkling wines including champagnes require longer chilling of a few hours.
3. Time the uncorking - For red wines, remove the cork an hour before the wine is served to let the wine breath. For white wines, uncork right before you serve your guests. White wines tend to diminish in quality the longer you keep the bottle open at room temperature.
4. The proper glass - Large bowl glasses should be used for red wines and narrow, thin glasses should be used for white wines.
5. Pouring - Pour wine into the center of the glass allowing the flavor to float upwards. For bubbly wines that sparkle, pour along the side of the glass to preserve the all-important bubbles. Never fill a glass more than two-thirds or even halfway.

Drinking Wine

1. Holding a wine glass - The proper way to hold a wine glass is by the stem. This keeps fingerprints off the bowl and keeps your hand from heating the wine.
2. Swirling - Swirl your wine. It allows oxygen to get into the wine and gives you a better smell.
3. Smell - Smell the wine at least three times. You will find that the third smell will give you more information than the first smell did. Smell is a very important step in the tasting process and most people simply don't spend enough time on it
4. Taste the wine - Take a sip and swirl the wine around in your mouth. You have taste buds on both sides of the tongue, underneath, on the tip, and extending to the back of your throat.

Blue Heron Fine Wine & Spirits is a unique value added and innovative purveyor of quality wines and spirits. Blue Heron features an array of high quality artisanal wines from all over the globe organized by taste. An easy to use wine guide makes wine buying enjoyable for even the novice. Blue Heron is located at 124 Hebron Avenue in Glastonbury, Connecticut. For more information about Blue Heron please call 860-659-1300 or visit www.blueheronfinewine.com.