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What Shall We Drink?
its delicate bouquet or nuances of flavor. Especially sensitive
are the red wines in this respect. To think of serving a
vintage red Bordeaux, for instance, in an ice pail, must im
mediately appeal to anyone as both incongruous and funda
mentally wrong. Red Bordeaux is a warm, generous wine
and to chUl it is Hke giving a cold handclasp to a warm friend.
Contrarywise,one mayimagine how absurd it would be to
serve a Rhine wine—say,a Chabhs, too—at room tempera-
time or warmer. First of all, the wine would lack that sparkle
which it seems to acquire when chilled;second,it would taste
as flat and insipid as stale beer. And who likes stale beer?
Again,red winesshould not be made too warm,either,lest
their flavor pall on the taste as much as stale beer might.
I have noticed the growing popularity of using wine
baskets in the service of red wines,and beheve them practical
and helpful, particularly to novices in the handling of wine
bottles. The bottles rest on an inclined plane which tends to
keep the lees or dregs toward the bottom and these are notso
likely to be disturbed as when one pours from the neck and
restores a bottle to standing position.
In the main,I have mentioned French, Rhine, American
and a few Itahan wines. But one must not forget the rich
wines from Spain or the other wonderful beverages which
comefrom the vineyardsofPortugal,Austria and Hungary.
Usually, red Bordeaux, Hke Sauterne and Graves wines,
demandslarge glasses of goblet type. Infact,one almost may
gauge the size ofa glass according to the generous qualities of
the wines,whether red or white.
So also, with Chianti—not the so-called "Red Ink," sour
and lacking in refreshing bouquet, but the rich ruby red of
real Chianti, which,while dry,is not sour,and which also has
a most delightful aroma.
Speaking ofsournessin winesreminds meto warn you that
if a wine—red or white—tastes sour, instead of just "dry,"
pour it into a sink and don't drink it. No good wine is sour.
One might as weU drink vinegar as to imbibe a sour wine. It
no longer is wine,but acetic acid,and can ruin one'sstomach,
digestion and temper,to say nothing of possibly undermining
of one's health.