Pouring Wine at its Best Guide

The art of service--red

Whether you're at home or out at a restaurant, there's some important things you can do to elevate the enjoyment of your wine, and make every glass a winner!

Occasion--aromatic

Pretty straightforward isn't it? If you're celebrating, bring out something special. If it's pizza at home on a Wednesday night, a simple bottle of red should do the trick. Match the occasion, and thus the level of excitement, with the bottle. It's not just food and wine matching, it's about how much impact the bottle you've chosen will have, and how important wine is to the occasion.

Temperature--racy

Nothing worse. Literally, you’ve splashed the cash on a fancy bottle of Burgundy or maybe an old Aussie Shiraz in a nice restaurant, and the wine comes out at about 4 degrees. We get it, it’s hot in Australia, so better keep the bottles chilled….but you still want to be able to taste the wine! The inverse is also quite terrible - a warm white wine on a balmy evening just doesn't quite hit the spot.

Storage--aromatic

Kind of connected to service temperature, but can also be other issues. If your bottle comes to the table with a ripped/torn label, or maybe crinkled as though it’s got wet… chances are it has. Wine needs to be treated like a perishable food item – stable, cool temperature, no direct light, little movement, adequate humidity. If any of these get missed, your bottle could suffer. And nobody wants that.

Glassware--cellar

There is a case to be made for the fact that you probably don't need a different glass for every single grape variety in the world, and you certainly don't need a special one for soft drinks, but we can probably all agree that there's a difference between quaffing a week day red out of a tumbler (which we're all for btw), and serving a bottle you've been saving in elegant stemware on your birthday.

About the Author

Banjo Harris Plane is the three-time winner Sommelier of the Year Australia and a certified advanced Sommelier through the Court of Master Sommeliers. He first cut his teeth in the wine industry working as a sommelier in Australia's best restaurants, before starting multiple businesses in the space of a few years... these included two restaurants, a wine import business and co-founding Good Pair Days!