1. Mixing OJ and bubbly
Why ruin a good glass of fizz with orange juice? Just serve half a glass on its own, and leave the OJ to those who really need the taste. Same goes for Midori and bubbly. Eeek!
2. Having ice with white wine
Not even on the hottest of days is this allowed – unless the wine is under $5. It ruins the taste and looks stupid. Sink your feet into an ice bucket if it’s that hot, and sink your palate into the real flavours of the wine. Spritzers excepted.
3. Sparkling v champagne
Champagne is the bubbly that comes from the region of Champagne only, in France. That $12 bottle of Jacobs Creek is not.
4. Red wine with lemonade/coke/water
The only people allowed to do this are Italians – usually with their own home brew because it was made in 1986 and there’s still heaps of flagons in the shed.
5. Pouring a bottle straight away
Wine is full of rich, complex intense flavours. You need to let it breathe/decant before it’s at its optimum. I don’t need to explain the concept of foreplay here, but it’s the same thing essentially.
6. Hibiscus flowers and strawberries
Sure it looks fancy mixed with bubbly at those B-list parties but, c’mon… They go to waste and then we’re left to dispose of them on the floor when no one’s looking.
7. Small wine glasses
We’ve come a long way in recent times in realising that wine evolves better and quicker in bigger glasses (see point five). But some restaurateurs still insist on serving top-notch wine in those archaic, shapeless 200ml things. Open up!
8. Drinking wine too cold
The colder your white wine, the less flavour it will impart on your palate. Most whites are drunk way too cold. The more expensive whites should be taken out of the fridge and drunk about 15 minutes later. Try it – you’ll find the flavours are more robust. The same rule can apply for heavily-flavoured, Belgian-style beers.
9. Cheap New Zealand sauvignon blanc
There’s such an over-supply of this NZ grape, particularly from the Marlborough region, that people are confusing good value with good wine. If you really want to try a cracking sauvignon blanc from NZ, give the Cloudy Bay Te Koko a ride. Then try going back to drink that $15 crap.
10. Being scared
It might seem unnatural, but swirling and sniffing your wine (in a big glass) will make the experience of drinking it doubly enjoyable. Get into it, don’t worry about looking like a wine snob. Or of spilling some on your clothes. Embrace what’s in your glass and let it fly open to your senses.
Courtesy of your Daily Wine News
La Donna del Vino 
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