Written on 12/29/2020
New Year's edition!
After arming you with wine-related anecdotes for Christmas Eve, here's a new batch to shine before and after the countdown to the end of a year that promised us two thousand wines, but offered us far too many Coronas...
So write down or memorize these little bits of knowledge, and share them between courses to start or end a discussion!
1. A standard bottle (75cl) contains about six glasses of wine. It also contains the juice of 600 to 800 grapes!
2. A glass of wine should be one-third full. In this way, aromas find sufficient room to develop. And if wine glasses are narrower at the top, it's to keep the aromas as concentrated as possible towards our nose!
3. A Magnum is equivalent to two standard bottles. Many argue that this is the optimal size for wine to age well, thanks to the limited space reserved for oxygen...
4. Riddle me this: which country consumes the most wine per capita? Answer: The Vatican! At 74 liters per person per year, that's almost 100 bottles. Mass wine alone wouldn't be enough to reach this figure, so let's bet that the Pope accompanies his meals with Gevrey-Chambertin!
5. Are you planning to serve artichokes with your meal? Save on wine: artichokes make it taste metallic or too sweet.
6. A bottle of Champagne contains more pressure than a car tire!
7. To cool a bottle faster, add water to the ice bucket! This increases the contact surface between the cold and the bottle...
8. Making the wine travel in your mouth allows you to better experience its many aromas! Sweetness is felt at the tip of the tongue, bitterness at the back and acidity on the sides.
9. Most cork stoppers come from... Portugal! This country has many cork forests. The arrival of synthetic cork, however, has seen the popularity of traditional corks plummet.
10. Women are more predisposed to taste wine. Their sense of smell is generally better developed than that of men. This is especially true between the ages of 25 and 35!
11. Prince Charles of England has an Aston Martin that runs... on old wine! Queen Elizabeth gave him the original car when he turned 21. Then, in 2008, it was converted to run on bio-fuel.
Ready to impress your guests? Glad I could help!
