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WINE AND BREW9 Common Wine Myths1. Letting a bottle of uncorked wine sit for an hour canmake the wine taste better?OK, so how does a one inch hole allow for wine to breathe? Itdoesn’t. If you want to decant wine use a decanter. You canpick one up at you local department store for most likely under$20.2. France produces the most wines?Italy produces more wine than France, and there are close toone million registered Vineyards in Italy.3. Wine tastes much better with age?Yes and no. For high end, premium wines they will improvewith age, but they need to be kept at a consistent 55 degrees.You cannot put the bottle on your kitchen counter and leave itthere for ten years. Proper storage is a must with wine.For wines that are inexpensive to mid priced can be storedproperly (again a constant 55 degrees) for 3-5 years.4.Wine and cheese, duh!Actually wine and cheese don’t go together. The thick heavytexture of cheese coats the mouth and hinder the taste budsfrom picking up on the subtleties of the wine5. Expensive wines are vintage wines.A wines vintage simply refers to the year the wine was made.Most wines have a vintage.7. Nice legs!Legs actually have more to do with the bodyof the wine then quality. Wines that havemore body tend to have legs.floating on the top of the wine) that actually givesyou the headache.9. Storing an unfinished bottle of wine in thefridge is an effective way to preserve it?Yes it is. While the fridge at 35 degrees isn’t a recommendedmethod for long term storage – it doeskeep your favorite bottle from maturing too soon andbreaking down on your kitchen counter. Just be sureto finish the bottle within three days. Once that bottleis open it is a race against oxidation.Common Wine Terms:Tannin - A compund from the skins, stems andseeds of the grape. It is felt more then tasted inwine.Legs - Wine that has climbed the inside surfaceof the glass and creeps back down. Legs havenothing to do with the quality of wine but withthe body of wine.Off Dry - Slightly sweetened wine.Table Wine - Classificaion of most wines withan alcohol strength between 9-15 percent.8. Red wine causes moreheadaches than white becauseof its higher sulfites content?Belive it or not but lunch meat hasa higher content of sulfites than redwine. Sulfites are preservatives commonlyfound in many foods we eateveryday. Cheaper wines with lessalcohol require more sulfites thanhigher-quality wines with morealcohol content.If you research headachesand wine you will find that itis the “mother” (the film thatsometimes can be seenSeptember 2007 • 7