My Home Wine Bar

My Home Wine Bar or A Note On Wine Accessories

I was looking through a wine magazine and was astounded by the amount of accessories I would never buy for my home wine bar. I’m a wine professional and have been for several years. If there were a necessity or a cool device I would know all about it. I am not anti-accessory. There are plenty accessories I do have in my home wine bar.

The first thing I want to touch on is wine glasses. There are advantages in owning stemware (wine glasses with stems). The reason that tablecloths are white in restaurants is to help you observe wine. The stem helps keep the glass clean. The main reason for stems is to preserve the temperature of the wine. Temperature is very important and can heavily affect the taste of the wine. If the white is too cold you can miss out on its subtle complexities. If a red is too warm it’s gross. All of the glasses I own have stems. Now Go-Vino is a different story. Go-Vino cups are plastic, $2.99, the correct shape and have no odor making it a picnic must have. Just don’t put them in the dishwasher.

Aerator: Useful or full of hot air? The answer is: useful. Air is good for wine. It softens tannins and reveals fruit though earthiness. We have all been in the situation where a wine is so delicious that we consume it quickly. However, without proper aeration we might be missing out on what that wine might transform into with a little air. The best wines need this aeration and only get better with air. That’s what decanters do. They spread out the wine to expose a large surface area to the air thus aerating it. I don’t know about you but I don’t carry around my decanter with me. Even if I’m at home I might not want to pour the whole bottle out just to aerate the wine. Decanters are more thorough but aerators are more convenient.

Oxygen is good for the wine… until it starts to turn wine into vinegar. My grandparents would fill water bottles all the way to the top and cap it. This stopped all oxygenation but left the wine with a plastic flavor. For this the proper device is a vacuum system. It pumps the air out of the bottle thus extending the life of the wine. This is perfect for the person who only has one glass of wine with dinner. On average I drink wine up to 4 days after I open it (in most cases).

Corkscrews, here’s the deal. I own a waiters corkscrew with a double hinge and a hollow Teflon screw. Unless you are unable to put forth the effort needed to open a bottle of wine, you shouldn’t own anything else.

Thanks again for reading. Please write and tell me about your accessory rip offs and failures.