Love wine but feel like there’s a lot you don’t know about it?
Humans have been making the delicious stuff for over 8,000 years, which means we’ve had a lot of time to figure out the best ways to enjoy drinking it, but those techniques don’t always reach everyone.
That’s why we — Raj Punjabi and Noah Michelson, hosts of HuffPost’s “Am I Doing It Wrong?” podcast — asked Doug Frost, master sommelier and co-founder of Echoland Winery, to join us for an entire episode dedicated to demystifying wine.
Listen to the full podcast by pressing play on the player and learn tons of wine secrets:
Frost explained why letting wine breathe can make it taste better, the truth about boxed wine (and why it gets an unfairly bad rap) and offered a brilliant (and incredibly easy) hack for optimising our imbibing: the 30-minute rule.
“[People] talk a lot about red wines being [served] at room temperature and white wines coming out of the refrigerator, and both those places are not ideal,” he told us.
That’s because in wines that are served too warm, the “alcohol will be emphasised, leaving it flat and flabby,” according to Wine Spectator, and in wines that are served too cold “aromas and flavours will be muted and, for reds, the tannins may seem harsh and astringent.”
“Some wines like to be a little colder than other wines [but] when you get a wine straight out of the fridge… it’s usually gonna be so cold, you can’t taste and smell everything that it has to offer,” Frost said.
“Sometimes you’ll see wine geeks literally warming the glass up in their hands,” he noted, in order to bring cold wine up to a temperature where they can enjoy its complexities.
But there’s a simpler way to get closer to the 55 degree “sweet spot” that Frost recommends for most wines.
“My rule is take a red wine and stick it in the fridge for a half hour before you drink it, and with a white wine, take it out of the fridge a half hour before you drink it,” he told us.
Thirty minutes will either bring a bottle of red that’s been at room temperature to the cooler ideal “cellar temperature,” which allows us to truly taste everything it has to offer or, if a bottle of white has been in the fridge, it’ll have time to warm up to a temperature that will really showcase its flavour.
For more wine tips — like where you should be storing it, how long it’ll last once you’ve opened it, and why you might want to put a bottle in the freezer — listen to the full episode above or wherever you get your podcasts.
Make sure to subscribe to “Am I Doing It Wrong?” so you don’t miss a single episode, including our investigations of the ins and outs of tipping, how to apologise or vanquish your credit card debt, how to find love online or overcome anxiety, tips for online shopping, taking care of your teeth and pooping like a pro, secrets to booking and staying in a hotel, how to deal with an angry person, cooking tips from celebrity chef Jet Tila, shocking laundry secrets, the tips and tricks for cleaner dishes, getting your best workout, and more.
