Great Wine Made Simple - Andrea Immer [110]
THE AH-SO This model is also portable, and it is one of the best for very fragile, old, or soft corks that might be easily broken if penetrated by an augur. It is key-shaped, with a metal loop handle attached to two flexible, bladelike prongs inside a sheath. You remove the sheath, and slide the prongs into the bottle opening between the cork and the glass, gently working the prongs down the cork’s edges. It is similar to running a knife blade around the edge of a muffin to loosen it from the tin. Once the prongs are all the way down the sides of the cork, you twist and slowly lift the loop handle to slide the cork out.
THE “WING”-TYPE CORKSCREW My least favorite opener is the one everyone gets as a wedding gift, with two metal levers that open up as you twist the augur into the cork. You then push the levers back down to (if you’re lucky) lift the cork. I think this model is bulky, awkward, and probably responsible for most of the world’s broken and pushed-in corks, because its augur is thick and dull, and often chews up the cork as it goes in, making it a lot harder to get out in one piece. You can usually make it work, but it’s not ideal.
A Restaurant Wine Service Primer
(For professionals and everyone else who has ever wondered about the rituals of restaurant wine service.)
When opening wine for restaurant guests, I complete a few additional steps for proper, professional wine service, before and after the cork is pulled. Here are the techniques I teach all wine waiters, from opening and showing the cork to decanting and pouring, and why each is done. You’ll also learn about being on the receiving end of wine service in a restaurant, as well as something about the serving of fine wines at home.
Waiter’s tip: No matter how experienced you are, always have a service napkin when you are serving wine to customers. Accidents and drips can happen to anyone.
BEFORE THE WINE IS OPENED
Confirm you have the right wine before you are at the table. Otherwise, you lose precious time correcting your mistake. Generally, guests are in a hurry to get their wine, and busy waiters are always in a hurry.
Present the bottle. Show the bottle to the guest who ordered it, point to the label, and say the name of the wine and the vintage (if your guest uses reading glasses, they won’t be able to see what wine you’ve brought if you just point). This is your last chance to make sure you don’t mistakenly open the wrong wine.
AFTER THE WINE IS OPENED
Present the cork. This means remove the cork from the augur and place it on the table to the right of the guest’s wineglass; formal restaurants present the cork on a small doily-lined plate. Receiving the cork means major performance anxiety for a lot of people, because many think they are supposed to do something with it, such as smell it. Feel free to do so, but the scent of the cork will tell you very little about the quality and condition of the wine. Only smelling and tasting the wine will tell you that. Some people touch the cork’s end to see if it’s wet, indicating the bottle was properly stored on its side. This is relevant for wines in medium- to long-term storage in a cellar, because keeping the cork moist helps to maintain a tight seal, thereby guarding against premature oxidation. But for restaurants selling current wine stocks that rotate often—and this is the majority—this is a nonissue.
WHY THE CORK RITUAL?
I must acknowledge that traditional European sommeliers smell the cork themselves before presenting it to the guest. When I have asked why, they say the main reasons are habit and tradition. They don’t trust the cork to tell them whether or not the wine is okay, either.
Presenting the cork originally came about during the world wars, as a precaution against wine fraud by counterfeiters, who would take emptied