Wine Q&A with The Tasting Panel #5
Watch or listen as Chris Lafleur, Sommeliers Creed for Cameron Hughes, and Joe Roberts, 1winedude.com, walk us through frequently asked questions about wine.
It seems like only yesterday that we sold our first Lot Series wine: Lot 1, 2002 Lodi Syrah. Nearly 900 releases later, we’re still going strong. Over the years we have heard a LOT of interesting questions about wine and we hope that Chris and Joe will help answer some of your questions in this educational and informative wine video.
Today’s Wine Q&A topics include:
- What is your Wednesday wine?
- Do sulfites in wine give you a headache?
- What’s the best way to store wine?
- How do you know when a wine bottle is ready to open?
- How do you feel about alternative wine packaging different than the classic wine bottle?
- Why do some people slurp when they’re drinking wine?
- Is there a wine tasting method or order?
- What’s the difference between “Mountain Fruit” and “Valley Fruit”?
- What is wine ABV? What does ABV stand for?
- When did you first fall in love with wine?
- Do you have any wine wisdom to share?
- Why is wine special to you?
We love answering your wine questions! Keep the conversation going by sending us your questions about wine!
Wine Q&A with The Tasting Panel #4
Watch or listen as Chris Lafleur, Sommeliers Creed for Cameron Hughes, and Wanda Mann, Wine Writer and Educator, walk us through frequently asked questions about wine.
It seems like only yesterday that we sold our first Lot Series wine: Lot 1, 2002 Lodi Syrah. Nearly 900 releases later, we’re still going strong. Over the years we have heard a LOT of interesting questions about wine and we hope that Wanda and Nicole will help answer some of your questions in this educational video.
Today’s Wine Q&A topics include:
- Why is Pinot Noir called the “heartbreak grape”?
- What are some more wine nicknames?
- Why are there different types of wine bottles?
- Is wine a science or art? (or both?)
- Does seasonality play a role in what wine types you should drink?
- How do you turn your beer-loving friend into a wine lover?
- Why do some geographical wine sources emphasize varietal and others the region?
- Drink the wine now, or save it?
- Why is there such a variation in wine prices?
We love answering your wine questions! Keep the conversation going by sending us your questions about wine!
Wine Q&A with The Tasting Panel #3
Wine Questions and Answers with Nicole Muscari, your Cameron Hughes Pocket Wine Advisor, and Wanda Mann, Wine Educator. Watch as these two wine aficionados walk us through frequently asked questions about wine.
It seems like only yesterday that we sold our first Lot Series wine: Lot 1, 2002 Lodi Syrah. Nearly 900 releases later, we’re still going strong. Over the years we have heard a LOT of interesting questions about wine and we hope that Wanda and Nicole will help answer some of your questions in this educational video.
Today’s Wine Q&A topics include:
- What is your “Go to” wine?
- Describe yourself as a wine varietal?
- Why do we swirl wine?
- What’s most important when pairing wine and food?
- How do you introduce a “newbie” to wine?
- What are some of the common misconceptions about wine?
- Is there a wrong way to drink wine?
- What can be inferred by a wine’s color?
- What is your wine philosophy?
We love answering your wine questions! Keep the conversation going by sending us your questions about wine!
Wine Q&A with Sommeliers from The Tasting Panel #2
Frequently asked wine questions answered by Chris Lafleur, Sommeliers Creed for Cameron Hughes, and Katy Long, Director of International Wines for VWE.
It seems like only yesterday that we sold our first Lot Series wine: Lot 1, 2002 Lodi Syrah. Nearly 900 releases later, we’re still going strong. Over the years we have heard a LOT of interesting questions about wine and we hope that Chris and Katy will answer some of your wine questions in this lovely video.
Today’s Wine Q&A topics include:
- Is it always beneficial to swirl my wine?
- What are the most common wine misconceptions?
- Can a novice appreciate the nuances of wine as it ages?
- What’s the deal with aeration and aerators?
- How do wines get their color?
- What are the different ways to age wine?
- Is there a “wrong” way to drink wine?
- What is malolactic fermentation?
- Submit your own questions
We love answering your wine questions! Keep the conversation going by sending us your questions about wine!
How to Properly Open Sparkling Wine
Here to help us properly open sparkling wine (Champagne, Prosecco, etc.) is Chris Lafleur, a sommelier based out of Toronto who focuses on selling and training all things wine.
The most challenging thing that sommeliers get nervous about when tableside is opening sparkling wine.
How do we do it?
What’s the right way?
Is it ok if the cork hits the ceiling?
Watch Chris Lafleur as he shares the basics of opening sparkling wine with us.
How to Properly Open Sparkling Wine Video Highlights:
- 00:00 Introduction
- 00:28 Opening Sparkling Wine
- 00:49 The Tools
- 01:11 How to Hold the Bottle
- 01:20 Cut the Foil
- 01:59 Remove Foil to Reveal the Cage
- 02:15 Holding the Bottle and Cloth
- 02:29 Open the Cage with 6 Turns
- 02:45 Release the Cork / Open the Bottle
- 03:16 Present the Cork
- 03:29 Pour the First Glass and Top it
- 03:55 Enjoy the Bubbly
Video Transcript:
Chris Lafleur
Good afternoon, everyone. Welcome back to the CH Wine tasting room. We have something a little bit different today. So for those of you who know a little bit about me, I’m a sommelier. I’m based out of Toronto, and a lot of the things that I do are focused on selling wine tableside in restaurants. And this also involves me training other people, servers, other sommeliers to do the same thing.And the most challenging thing, I think that everyone is nervous to do tableside and probably if you’ve ever opened one of these in your home, you know what I mean? It’s opening sparkling wine. Like, how do we do it? What’s the right way? Is it okay if the cork hits the ceiling? Probably not. But I mean, depends on how many breakable things there are in close proximity to you when you do that.
So let me give you the basics on how we do it. First off, we need a corkscrew. We need our cloth. And these are going to be the most important items that we have today that we need our glass. And here’s the thing about glassware. You can pour into almost any kind of glass. Some people like coupe glasses, some people like flutes similar to this.
Some people like just regular wine glasses. For this one, we’re going to stick with traditional flutes because that’s what you’re most of the time going to see. So let’s begin. We take a grasp of the bottle by the neck. We’re very careful. And when we’re serving this to a guest, when we open it, we make sure that the label faces them.
For most of this procedure. Next, we take our corkscrew with a nice sharp knife on it, and we’re going to start to cut below this line. Now, I know if you’re looking at this in the camera, you can see that we do have actually a tag that you can use to pull this off and get it around that way.
You’re welcome to do that. But in a restaurant, because the tags aren’t always completely helpful or they don’t go all the way around instead of getting like one that’s only half pulled, we want to use the corkscrew knife to do it all the way. So like, so we’re going to cut it around underneath the second lip as if we’re trying to cut through the glass itself.
You won’t be able to do it, but it will ensure a nice cut along the foil. Then I make another incision. Incision like we’re doctors, a wine here along the cage, so that I can then use this to pull it up. And off we go. Oh, off we go, Off we go. That happens. That’s okay. Now, goodbye to the foil and goodbye to the knife.
We don’t need either anymore. Next thing we’re going to do is we’re going to take our cloth. We’re going to turn the little handle away. So it’s over here. We’re going to put our cloth with our thumb over the top of the cork. This ensures that once we open the cage, we never lose control of the cork. If you were doing, say, a certified CMS sommelier exam, this is one of the things you’ll be expected to do.
You don’t want to fail because you took your thumb off. Now I’ve opened up the cage with six turns of the cage six every time. Otherwise it’s a weird bottle. And then we flip the cloth back down over it. We use our fingers to loosen the cage a little, and then we start to open the wine. I’m keeping pressure on the top with my thumb and I’m slightly turning the wine back and forth, back and forth, back and forth.
I’m not spinning it on the table and spinning it in my hand. I’m keeping pressure and keeping it fairly stable. Now I’m going to get close to opening it up. We’re going to let only a little bit of carbon dioxide out. So you get a little, little puff and a little sigh and that’s it. The wine is now open and I’ll take the bottle.
We’ll take the cork, will present it to the guests like so you can commemorate this for your first anniversary of the time that you defeated Strahd in a Dungeons and Dragons campaign. You dungeon Heads know what I’m talking about. And then we’ll pour the first class. We start with just a light touch, and that’ll be the first sip that they can take to confirm the wine is not corked.
And then we top it up once we start getting around the table, we can still take two pause because of course, with effervescent wine, you don’t want it to bubble over the side. So we’re going very carefully and slowly and sometimes separate pause to pause is totally fine. And that’s it. That’s opening sparkling wine. Now show your friends how controlled and well you can do it.
And then on the second bottle, just pop that cork off and let the party begin. And that is how we do it. So I will see you at the next bottle and glass.
Chris Lafleur
Sommelier
Chris is a sommelier certified by the Court of Master Sommeliers and has worked on the floors of acclaimed Toronto restaurants, including Blueblood Steakhouse, Cibo Wine Bar, and Michelin Starred Don Alfonso 1890 (named the #1 Best Italian Restaurant in the World, outside of Italy).
Wine Q&A with Sommeliers from The Tasting Panel #1
Wine Q&A with Chris Lafleur, Sommeliers Creed for Cameron Hughes, and Katy Long, Director of International Wines for VWE. Watch as these two wine experts walk us through frequently asked questions about wine.
It seems like only yesterday that we sold our first Lot Series wine: Lot 1, 2002 Lodi Syrah. Nearly 900 releases later, we’re still going strong. Over the years we have heard a LOT of interesting questions about wine and we hope that Chris and Katy will answer some of your questions in this lovely video.
Today’s Wine Q&A topics include:
- What’s important when pairing food & wine?
- How long will a wine bottle last when opened?
- Waiter brings your wine bottle. Now what?
- Why smell the wine cork?
- How much wine for my party?
- Decant my wine?
- Difference between Syrah, Shiraz, and Petite Sirah grapes and wine?
- What are tannins in wine?
- What wine varietal are the sommeliers?
- What is your “Go to” wine?
- Submit your own questions about wine for future discussions
We love answering your wine questions! Keep the conversation going by sending us your questions about wine!
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