elvita CWI5070S, User Manual

Page: 70 / 144

70
GB
• To make the most of the bouquet and taste of your wine, never fill more than half a glass
at a time. It will also help if the shape of your wine glass is appropriate for your wine.
The size and shape of your wine glass’s bowl will determine the intensity and complexity
of the bouquet. The stem should be long enough to allow you to avoid hand contact
with the bowl of the glass and should be tulip­shaped or tapered at the top.
Corking – a tiny percentage of bottled wine (about 1%) will suffer from this. The cork reacts
with the wine.
and gives it a musty, unpleasant taste. It is the most common wine storage problem and is
caused by harmless bacteria growing on the cork. As unfortunate as this is, there is nothing
to do but to discard all of the wine in the affected bottle. This is not to be confused with
small fragments of cork floating in the wine itself, which will not impair the flavour.
Oxidization – when wine has been opened and left for longer than a day; it tends to lose its
aroma and colour, giving an overall flat taste. The only way to avoid this, is to either drink
the wine on the same day it was opened or to use a vacuum device specially designed for
removing oxygen from opened wine bottles. If you use such a device, the wine should still
be consumed shortly afterwards.
Ullage – this is loss of wine from the bottle by evaporation or leakage. Signs of ullage
include wine seeping around the cork, a protruding cork or a stained label. It can happen if
the bottle has been allowed to get too warm. The wine may still be drinkable, if the leakage
was recent; however, you should be aware that if the wine cools down again, contraction
can cause more air to be sucked into the bottle and result in further deterioration.
Slight effervescence in still wine – this isn’t really a problem with the way the wine has
been stored, but as a result of incomplete malolactic fermentation before the wine was
bottled. A good way to get rid of the effervescence is to let the wine breathe. Alternatively
you can use a bottle vacuum device, after about five minutes the effervescence will vanish.
Sediment – this is not normally a problem, however both red and white wines can produce
sediment after a number of months in a bottle. The sediment consists of tartrate crystals
and is totally harmless. If anything the building of sediment can be considered a good sign
because it means that the wine was not subjected to much (if any) filtering, meaning that the
flavours and aromas should be preserved better.
A good way to get around sediment (if it is a problem) is to stand the bottle upright, the day
before opening, so that the sediment can settle to the bottom of the bottle.
You can also decant your wine; decanting will “open up” the flavour of both young and old
wines, but younger wines in particular. To decant, pour the wine slowly and evenly into your
decanter.
WINE STORAGE PROBLEMS