The Auswine Forum

My vote - I use flutes for sparkling reds.

Graham

FWIW

1) Flutes

2) Always serve too cold as it can always very easily warm up... the other way is harder... and there is less chance it will spurt everywhere on opening!

Adair

Red Bigot wrote:

Do you hold the bottle upright or at an angle when opening?

Upright, what work's best?

I know that there is a difference between some beverages in the degree to which they erupt. I consider carlton cold to be one of the varieties most prone to eruption whilst warm, albeit a beer. I'll certainly chill Joseph to a very cold state before trying to open one again. That being said, if one is not of the proclivity of drinking a full bottle of sparkling red in one sitting, then I do recommend the bouquet yeilded by 250ml of Joseph splashed liberally across tiles. As such, my dissapointment of the spill was mitigated in part by the beatiful aromas and the entailed expectations of a great wine.

An interesting range of views regarding glasswear. I wonder what a sparkling red glass from riedel would look like if ever they had the genius to release one.

Perhaps something like this would be in order:

Nah, soon as the wine got to the bowl it'd go flat. Don't drink bubbles much but I'm with flutes for all sparkling wines.

daz

aj_syrah wrote:

Red Bigot wrote:

Do you hold the bottle upright or at an angle when opening?

Upright, what work's best?.

Definitely tilting the bottle about 30 degrees (or a tad more even) on opening will reduce your chances of the precious liquid hitting the floor and avoiding your glass. Tilting before you start removing the cork is even better.

At the recent Australia Day Tastings here in the UK, we poured quite a few bottles of Sparkling Red. Many people were very curious to try what the typical UK consumer thinks of as quite a novelty, despite our explanation that Sparkling red is quite normal back in Oz.

In general people wanted to know (i) how it came about (eg was it a winemaking 'accident', and for which I don't have an answer), (ii) how to serve it (temperature and stemware) and (iii) what to drink it with (on it's own or with food).

All in all, great to see the look of surpise and delight on people's faces when the frothy deep red and purple foam first pours into the glass. Wine almost universally got a thumbs up, too. Which is nice.

Waiters Friend wrote:

aj_syrah wrote:

Red Bigot wrote:

Do you hold the bottle upright or at an angle when opening?

Upright, what work's best?.

Definitely tilting the bottle about 30 degrees (or a tad more even) on opening will reduce your chances of the precious liquid hitting the floor and avoiding your glass. Tilting before you start removing the cork is even better.

Yeah, that's what I do, it markedly increases the surface area available for the gas to escape and also opens up the escape path up the neck. I don't think I've had a significant spill in years opening a sparkling wine that way.

The worst one I've seen was when a person at a wine dinner opened up someone elses Rockford Black with it vertical on the table. A fair amount was distributed over himself, nearby people and the white table cloth. He wasn't popular and I don't think we went back to that restaurant.

Funny you mention that story Mr Bigot. About 10 years ago my girlfriend then was working in a restaurant on Valentines Day. I had been working late myself so came in for a late dinner to see her. The restaurant was set up for valentines day with the white tablecloths, candelights on each table and plenty of couples. I bought myself a nice bottle of sparkling red to get me through and sat down to dinner for one. The bottle obviously didn't appreciate the car ride because when I opened it the red fizz went everywhere, it even managed to put the candles out! Special night that one.

Tom A wrote:Funny you mention that story Mr Bigot. About 10 years ago my girlfriend then was working in a restaurant on Valentines Day. I had been working late myself so came in for a late dinner to see her. The restaurant was set up for valentines day with the white tablecloths, candelights on each table and plenty of couples. I bought myself a nice bottle of sparkling red to get me through and sat down to dinner for one. The bottle obviously didn't appreciate the car ride because when I opened it the red fizz went everywhere, it even managed to put the candles out! Special night that one.

Aw shit!!

Tom A wrote:Funny you mention that story Mr Bigot. About 10 years ago my girlfriend then was working in a restaurant on Valentines Day. I had been working late myself so came in for a late dinner to see her. The restaurant was set up for valentines day with the white tablecloths, candelights on each table and plenty of couples. I bought myself a nice bottle of sparkling red to get me through and sat down to dinner for one. The bottle obviously didn't appreciate the car ride because when I opened it the red fizz went everywhere, it even managed to put the candles out! Special night that one.

But, in true Hollywood style, did you get the girl in the end? Or even the end of the night?

Glad I'm not a bubbles fan, especially FRS!