Wine Accessories

Anyone beginning an exploration into the world of wines and wine making may want to invest in several “accessories” before beginning their journey, and anyone all ready familiar with wines, will also require some basic wine accessories to help them with their hobby.

An amateur fan of wine may want to invest in a “wine journal” that allows space for labels and comments. Actually, the vast popularity of wines and wine tastings makes many such journals available, with “forms” for the journal keeper to fill in with all of the information about the wines sampled or tasted. Additionally, if they will be purchasing bottles of wine to taste at home they may want to invest in more advanced wine accessories as well. 

Anyone who intends to develop their own wine cellar will want to purchase, at least, a small, well-made wine rack, a strong bottle opener, a variety of wine glasses and some “soda cleaner” with which to properly clean the wine glasses. Additionally, a more advanced collection of wine accessories would include refrigerators, decanters, chilling buckets, foil cutters, stoppers, cellar tags, drip collars and even special thermometers. 

Wait! Isn’t wine tasting just about opening the bottle and enjoying its contents? Of course, but most wine enthusiasts quickly learn about the sensitivity and needs of each vintage, and they want to be adequately prepared in order to enjoy every bottle of wine to its best advantage. This begins with storage, and there is no better method than a well-designed wine rack. 

Most people are familiar with the smaller, four to six bottle wine racks available for a kitchen or pantry shelf, but these may not be the best investment for anyone interested in serious wine storage or tasting. Many wines will be affected by large variations in temperature and even humidity, and kitchens are notorious for such climates. This is the primary reason that bottles of wine should not be stored on a kitchen countertop. Additionally, sunlight or ambient light can also affect the taste of wine, so a darker location is ideal. Most wine racks will be made of heavier wooden structures that allow the bottles to be stored at the correct angles, and either clustered together or kept within individual cubbies. Currently there are also many racks for those who purchase by the case, and these are made to safely hold the heavier weights of cases of wine. 

Wine storage can also occur in special wine refrigerators, which can hold many bottles at the ideal temperatures for serving. Generally, such units will store white and sparkling wines and will maintain a temperature of forty-five to fifty degrees Fahrenheit. 

Other standard wine accessories include a good bottle opener, and for anyone new to removing the corks from wine bottles, a fail-proof corkscrew is the best investment. There are, literally, dozens of types of corkscrews available, and it is best to choose the one most appropriate to the needs of the buyer. 

Once the bottle is open, the wine will need to be poured into the appropriate style of glassware. Currently, wine enthusiasts purchase glass or crystal stemware as well as “stem less” glasses made especially for wine. The key is to understand the type of glasses most suited to the wines themselves. For example, red wines will need glasses that hold approximately ten to twenty ounces of fluid, and have bowls broad enough to accommodate the “swirling” that is done to observe the color of the vintage. 

Finally, after using wine glasses of any kind, they will need to be cleaned as affectively as possible. This means rinsing must be comprehensive, and “soda cleansers” are the best method of treating both glass and crystal vessels. 

There are many other wine accessories available, and as with all other items, it is best to invest in the highest-quality possible in order to enjoy a longer usage and better performance.