How To Make Wine Less Bitter And Taste Better
While there are many rich flavours and features of a good wine, one that is too bitter is not going to be very enjoyable. Many people arent prepared for bitter flavours when they first venture into the unique world of wine. If youre new to wine, you may want to consider the possibility that this is just the way wine is!
In ancient times, bitterness was a taste that alerted humans to the possibility that something may be toxic. It can take some time to get used to bitterness in wine. The more you try it, the more you may come to enjoy it.
There are a few tricks you can try to decrease the bitterness of a wine so you can still enjoy it. Here is a guide on how to make wine less bitter :
White Wine Vinegar A Not
Naturally, white wine vinegar might not be one of the aromatic and flashiest ingredients in your kitchen. But, it will not be an overstatement to say that it can bring great benefits to your pantry. What is it and how to use it in your cooking for taste and texture improvement? Let us find out the answers here:
Consider Returning Sour Wine
As with any bad-tasting wine, an option you always have is to try returning to the seller. If youre at a restaurant, this will almost always work. Just dont make a habit of it!
If you bought the wine from a wine purveyor or wine store, you can often take it back for a refund if the flavor is egregiously bad. We recommend checking the stores policies before purchasing from them to figure out what their return policy is.
While many wine drinkers feel that asking for a refund is rude if the wine is really bad tasting or potentially corked its totally acceptable.
You May Like: Best Stella Rosa Wine
Why Does It Matter What Kind Of Glass You Drink From
Both Riedel and Tuttle stress the aesthetic importance of glassware as the sensory introduction to the entire wine drinking experience. “You associate the gentle ringing of a nice crystal glass after a cheers with opulence, and the clunk of a dollar store glass with necessity,” says Tuttle. “You react to the feel of a feather-light handblown glass with fascination of craftsmanship…and if you stare deep into your finely crafted glass, youll notice an array of colors around the glass that extend far beyond purple, red, and yellow.
In addition, drinking your favorite bottle out of a glass designed to enhance that type of wine will taste better because of the way the wine is introduced to your nose, tongue, and cheeks.
RELATED: These Red Wines Are Actually Best Served Chilled, Says a Sommelier
How To Make Mulled Wine:
To make mulled wine, simply
Full ingredient amounts/instructions listed in the recipe below.
Don’t Miss: Lamb Beer Pairing
What Is Hyperdecanting
If youve ever seen the pomp and circumstance that goes into decanting a fancy bottle of wine at a restaurant â the cloth-lined basket, the delicate pour into the oddly shaped glass decanter â then youre probably thinking that hyperdecanting is a bit like that. Well I have news for you, friends. You are completely wrong.
To hyperdecant a wine, all that you need to do is dump a bottle of wine in a blender and blend it on high for 30 seconds or so. The wine will get frothy and youll see lots of tiny bubbles swirl around inside, and that is exactly the point. Just let the bubbles subside, pour the wine in a glass, and voila! Taste the difference. For comparisons sake, it usually takes between 30 minutes and three hours to decant a bottle of red wine otherwise.
Also Check: Where Is Virginia Wine Country
Let Your Wine Breathe
Wine could also have been deprived of oxygen right from the wine-making process. Lack of oxygen strangles the drink so that the aromatic compounds do not blend well. This introduces sulfur compounds that reduce the wine. When wine is reduced, it may have an unpleasant smell, such as the smell of rotten eggs, boiled vegetables or burnt rubber. Let the wine sit in a for some hours and the smells should be blown away so that the aromatic smells promised on the label can come to the surface. If you are not willing to wait for some hours while the wine aerates naturally, you can as well speed up the process by mixing it using a whisk or blender.
If youre going the decanter route with patience, heres 2 brands we like to use: Le Chateau and Bella Vino.
Also Check: How Many Calories In Kim Crawford Wine
What Is The Best Red Wine To Cook With Beef
How to Choose a Red Wine for Cooking
- If youre cooking beef, lamb or stew, Cabernet Sauvignon and Pinot Noir are your friends.
- If youre cooking chicken, duck or pork, go with Merlot.
- If youre cooking seafood, choose Pinot Noir.
- If youre cooking vegetables or sauce, try a light Merlot or Chianti.
4 . 2020 .
The Weird Thing That Can Make Your Wine Taste Different According To Research
If you arent a fan of bitterness, this is good news for you.
Here at EatingWell, we love wine . Whether you enjoy a nice glass of red with some pasta or toast with a crisp rosé in warmer months, wine can be a delicious part of celebrations. . There is definitely something to be said for wine pairings that elevate foods, but the scientific effect of food on the taste of your favorite vino is not as common knowledge. Recent research out of the American Chemical Society found that one type of food may have a large impact on wine flavor: fat.
A new study published in the Journal of Agriculture and Food Chemistrytook a look at the role food can play on the flavor of grapes and wine. Tannins are the polyphenic part of grapes that are responsible for the bitter, astringent taste of red wines. To see the role of fats in the flavor of wine, researchers looked at how tannins interacted with fats in a solution as well as how consuming fats before consuming wine with tannins affect its perceived flavor. When added to an emulsion of olive oil and water, tannins inserted themselves into lipid droplets causing larger droplets to form. They also conducted taste tests to see if consuming oils like olive oil or grapeseed oil affected the perceived flavor of wine. Volunteers noted that consuming oil before drinking wine mellowed the astringency of the tannins and made the wines taste more fruity than bitter.
Also Check: Carbs In Wine Red
Make A Batch Of Homemade Mulled Wine
Another winter warmer winner is homemade mulled wine, which is one of my favorite ways to turn bad red wine into a wonderful treat.
Mulled wine is simply red wine that has been warmed, with spices added to it. A bonus is that it makes your house smell nice.
To make mulled wine, heat up a bottle or box of cheap red wine on the stove. Bring it to a simmer but dont ever let it reach boiling point.
Add whatever warming spices appeal to you, such as cinnamon, cardamon, allspice, or cloves. If this is your first time making mulled wine or you want to keep things simple, get a box of ready-made mulled wine spice blend.
Add some sugar to sweeten the wine, a tablespoon or two is usually enough, then throw in sliced oranges or sliced apples and a little brandy or whiskey.
Leave the mixture to simmer for about fifteen to twenty minutes, stirring occasionally. You can also make mulled wine in a slow cooker and leave it to mull for three hours to reach its richest flavor.
Strain the mulled wine and serve warm in mugs.
And there you have all my secrets to make any cheap bottle or box of wine taste better.
Give The Wine Some Air
Wine bottles are designed with a long thin neck to reduce the amount of air that reaches the wine inside.
When wine, especially red wine, comes into contact with air, it reacts and continues to mature or change. Wine makers want to stop this from happening, so they use bottles with thin necks and seal the wine inside.
If you find a rather bad wine swirling around in your glass, giving the wine some air to mature and blend its true flavors could improve the wine.
Don’t Miss: Seven Sisters Wine Moscato
Wine Hack #: Blend It
If you stroll down the wine aisle, you’ll notice that there are wines which are produced from a single grape , like Pinot Noir, and then there are wines which are combinations of multiple grapes. For example, wines from the Côtes du Rhône in France are typically blends of Syrah, Grenache, and Mourvèdre grapes.
Blending wine is an old art form, but it doesn’t have to be difficult. You can easily make your crappy wine taste better by mixing it with a less crappy wine. Sarah Knapton from The Guardian suggests, “First-time blenders should start by mixing wines that are similar in character. For example, blend heavy reds with heavy reds. Or try a little peach wine with some Reisling.”
This handy guide from Wine Folly will tell you everything you need to know about which grapes appear in the most common blends, but the nice thing about this hack is that you can’t really go wrong. If you’re already stuck with a bad bottle, just have fun with it. It couldn’t get any worse!
The other nice thing about blending your own wine is you can make an international blend by taking, say, an Australian Shiraz, and blending it with a Spanish Grenache. The world is in your wine glass!
Red White And Bubbly Basics
Tuttle offers the following basic principles for choosing a varietal-specific size and shape for your wine glass.
For reds, if you cant see through the wine , go for a big, Bordeaux-style glass with a large, tall bowl. If you can see through the wine , opt for a Burgundy glass, which combines a tapered rim with a large bowl to concentrate the more delicate aromas.
For whites, Tuttle says you can get away with a catch-all glass, since whites dont have tannins to consider. White glasses tend to be slimmer in size and shape to direct the aromas straight to your palate. These are what I prefer to drink champagne out of as well, as it allows more space than a flute to open up and shows the full, complex range of aromatic compounds that we love, he adds.
You May Like: Where To Buy Wine Grapes
How To Make Homemade Wine Taste Better
How good wine tastes, whether it’s homemade or aged at a vineyard, depends on more factors than the wine-making process. How a wine is stored and handled has a distinct effect on its flavor. Proper storage and handling techniques will improve the taste of your wine.
Store your wine at its optimum temperature. White wines are typically stored at cooler temperatures than red. In general, most wines can be safely stored in temperatures ranging from 40 to 65 degrees Fahrenheit.
Maintain humidity levels at between 50 and 70 percent. This is to reduce cork shrinkage, which can allow oxygen to seep into the bottle, which in turn begins the process of turning your wine into vinegar.
Lay your wine bottles on their sides for storage. This keeps the cork wet. A dry cork can crumble and allow in oxygen.
Store your wine in an area where there won’t be vibrations. The best storage is a wall-anchored, wooden rack. The wood minimizes vibrations.
Keep your wine in a dark place. Ultraviolet light penetration, even through dark bottles, can ruin your wine. Sparkling wines are particularly sensitive to the light.
Drink the wine from a glass with a deep bowl that is tapered toward the top. The shape of the glass affects the aroma and intensifies the flavor. Different wines have different, traditional glasses. Use the appropriate glasses for red, white or sparkling wines.
Add a little soda water to your wine if all else fails.
The Two Types Of Glasses You Should Own
With all of the above points considered, at the end of the day your lifestyle, personal preferences, and how much you want to spend will really dictate how deep you want to go in extending your wine glass collection.
For those looking to do a basic upgrade, Tuttle offers the following simple tips: “For drinkers looking to upgrade their glassware, I recommend having one set of universal or all-purpose glasses for everyday drinking and one set of Burgundy glasses. You can cover a broad spectrum of wines with your universal, from Champagne to Cabernet, and your Burgundy glasses will be there for your more delicate wines.” And if there is another specific varietal that you commonly enjoy at home, like a Riesling or Syrah, Riedel recommends splurging for a varietal-specific glass to make your nightly ritual just a little bit more special.
Also Check: Where To Buy Madeira Wine
What’s One Simple Trick To Make Sure Your Wine Tastes Great After Opening
Ergle says decanting is a surefire way to make wine taste better, however, it involves a few steps and therefore isn’t the most efficient way to ensure you are serving the best wine at a last-minute get-together. According to Wine Spectator, decanting separates the naturally-occurring sedimentfound in older red wines especiallyfrom the wine itself. If you’re serving white wine or rosé, you can skip this step altogether and, instead, employ Ergle’s go-to trick.
“I recommend for every day, need-it-now wines, chill it,” he says. “The popular rule is that white wine is served chilled and red wine is served cool, but no matter what varietal, all wine can become miserable when it warms up.”
Think about it this way, if you put the bottle of red in the refrigerator that morning and then take it out an hour or so before you want to drink it, it will reach the desired temperature . The alternative would be to pop open a warm bottle of red, which isn’t exactly the drink of choice in the summertime. When in doubt, chill it.
How To Make Sour Wine Taste Better By Adding Sugar
Another very common way of making sour wine taste better is by adding sugar. This may seem controversial to experienced wine drinkers, but at the end of the day, we are simply trying to make a bad tasting wine taste better.
Adding sugar will reduce the acid profile of the wine and make most people think it tastes better.
Heres how to properly add sugar to your wine.
You May Like: Wine Without Labels
Make Red Wine Hot Chocolate
If its cold and windy outside, and all you want to do is curl up and sip on something good, then youve got to try red wine hot chocolate.
Simply pour a little red wine into a mug. Fill the rest of the mug with milk and throw in some dark chocolate chunks. Heat the mug in the microwave until the chocolate melts. Stir and serve hot.
How Does Aerating Make It Taste Better
When you expose wine to air, two processes start: oxidation and evaporation. Oxidation means more oxygen is being added to something, which usually involves some kind of process of breakdown. When iron gets rusty or an apple turns brown, they’re undergoing oxidation. Evaporation is when a liquid turns into a vapor.
When wine is aerated, many volatile compounds like sulfides become oxidized and then turn into vapor. This means they don’t end up in your mouth, where they can make the wine taste sour, tannic, or otherwise nasty. Ever sipped a glass of wine that has the taste of rubbing alcohol? That would be ethanol, another volatile compound. Exposing your wine to a lot of air reduces that harsh note as well.
So the longer wine is exposed to air, the more harsh flavors and notes begin to mellow out and blend together. If you have a very delicate older wine, you probably don’t want it to aerate for too long or its singular aromas might literally turn into thin air. More recent vintages and very tannic wines tend to be harsher and more concentrated. These can stand long periods of aeration and be better for it.
Image via winedinewith.us
You May Like: How To Make Glasses Out Of Wine Bottles
What Kind Of Red Wine Is Good For Cooking
Best Varietals of Red Wine For Cooking
- Cabernet sauvignon is a popular full-bodied wine. Its an excellent choice for braising proteins such as ribs.
- Pinot noir is a much lighter varietal that cooks nicely with a meaty stew.
- Merlot is a silky red wine thats fruit-forward with low tannins.
25 . 2021 .
