Wine accidents…
In addition to the beautiful aspects of wine and enjoying it, it occasionally happens that an "accident" occurs with the wine or that apparently something is not completely o.k. with the wine. I will give you a number of tips that might alleviate the "pain"...
During one of the many wine tastings that I have done in the Netherlands, the following happened; I was invited to give a wine tasting for about 10 people in a chic villa in Zeist. When I arrived there I found a very spacious living room with a beautiful large dining table where up to 16 people could sit. In my opinion the ideal place for a wine tasting.
The lady of the house, however, did not agree and preferred the expensive seating area for the tasting. Suede light gray sofas, white animal skins and more of that kind of highly contagious furniture / items that do not really lend themselves for a wine tasting, of, in particular red wines.
I told her that if an accident with red wine would happen here she would have a problem. Madam, however, insisted, and so we went on ... It all started well, while tasting the white and rosé wines. Now it was the turn of the red divine drinks. First I served the hostess. Full of expectation of what would come in her glass, she hopefully held her glass up to me. So far everything was fine. And then it happened: Madam was distracted, and ... pulled her glass away! While I was pouring the red wine!
Panic everywhere, the plain gray suede couch suddenly looked suspiciously like the cow rug that lay next to it, and that one suddenly looked like it was a very red-and-white variant here... If looks could kill, you wouldn´t be able to read a piece of my hand right now. Ladies ran to the kitchen to get salt, cloths and other stain remover, but luckily I was just able to stop them from making the damage even bigger.
Because there is a substance that really works. I immediately took the bottle of the most dry white wine (a nice barley-dry Riesling) and started pouring it over the stains. The present company looked at me as if I had gone completely crazy ... "Now, calm down," I said, "just wait a minute." After a few minutes, I gently pat the wet spots and all stains were gone. Like a true magician, I had shown the seemingly impossible ...
So the tip is: Immediately pour red wine stains generously over with the most dry white wine you have in your house, let it soak in for a few minutes, gently pat and… ... voila, problem solved!
Another annoying thing is when the cork breaks off while uncorking the bottle. And certainly if the lower half of it gets stuck in the bottle. The cause of this is often one of the following; The bottle has been standing upright for too long, so that the cork has dried out and, as it were, has been dried out. In most cases the wine is no longer good and you unfortunately have to say goodbye to it. If this is not the case, gently press the cork into the bottle and then pour the contents through a sieve or coffee filter into a carafe. Consume immediately now!
Also possible is that you probably didn't screw the corkscrew deep enough. Many people are afraid that they will screw through the cork and that cork will come into the wine, but this will do no harm to the wine. Just spoon it out and the "problem" has been resolved.
Sometimes into white wine you will find some sort of transparent little balls. This is tartar and arises through turbulent transport, whether or not interspersed with large temperature differences. These "crystal" globules are tasteless and harmless. It can give a somewhat unpleasant sensation in the mouth but that is all.
With (especially older) red wine it sometimes happens that there is some depot or lees in the bottle. These are the solid constituents of the wine that sink to the bottom because of the long standing still (Compare it with a glass of fresh orange juice that you let stand for a while). Hence there is a "soul" at the bottom of the wine bottle (that hole where you can put your thumb). This ensures that the lees can attach to it and not swirl around the entire bottle. If you have to deal with this then decanting (transfer to a carafe) is the solution. I decant with the bottle neck above a candle so that I can stop pouring in time if such a solid component passes…
Have fun drinking!
Roel Peters RP-Vinos USA
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