Global Food And Wine Network

The important fact that most average wine drinkers overlook is decanting their red wine before drinking it!

Decanting is important for several reasons, the most important of which is harmonizing all the flavors of the wine. The interaction between oxygen and wine gives the wine that has been sitting in its bottle a chance to breath and release its aromas (for younger wines a carafe is used to provide more oxygen faster).

But providing air does one more thing for the wine, it allows its flavors to break-in sort of speak. I compare it to slowly cooked ragout or couscous that gets better as it sits a while, where all the flavors of the ingredients get a chance to slowly and gradually combine so that you could get the full, and not just the half flavor. That is why slowly cooked dishes like stews and ragouts always taste so much better the next day!

Although, you do not need to let the wine breath or oxidize for a day, but in some cases depending on the age of the wine, it is a good idea to let wine breath for several hours. The average breathing time however is about one to two hours for best results.

Why use a decanter (a word of caution, you generally do not use a decanter to oxygenate a wine, you use it to separate the wine from the settling sediments, and the older the wine, the less exposure of oxygen is needed)?

Well, number one when you use a decanter, you are supposed to take at least one minute time to pour the wine slowly in to the container ensuring that the sediments that are usually deposited on the bottom of the bottle are separated from the actual liquid and they remain in the bottle.

Number two, decanters are in general scientifically designed to provide and expose least amount of oxygen to the surface of the wine. Consequently, the consumer can enjoy the final results more effectively (for younger wines you're better off using a carafe that provides more oxygen to the wine, or leaving it in the decanter longer).

Number three, which has to do more with mindset than anything else, decanters are stylish! They give you a subtle but psychologically an in vogue feeling that whether you like to admit it or not, it makes you feel good and it makes your wine tasting experience more enjoyable!.

Remember, it is all about making your wine drinking experience more enjoyable. Find out more about wine decanter and wine tasting at the food and wine tips and review by visiting http://GastronomyGlobalNetwork.com. Live stylishly my friend, because you deserve it! Live stylishly my friend, because you deserve it!

There are 9 principle wine regions in France. They are Burgundy, Beaujolais, Rhone, Provence, Languedoc-Roussillon, Bordeaux, Loire, Champagne and Alsace.

Many of the internationally prominent grapes are native to these regions and they are as follows:

-Burgundy: Pinot Noir or Pinot Blanc, Chardonnay
-Rhone: Syrah
-Bordeaux: Merlot, Canernet Sauvignon
-Alsace: Pinot Gris, Riesling, Gewurztraminer

Some would question as to why these grapes from France are grown and utilized for wine making in different wine regions of the world instead of their own native grapes. Well, study shows that many of wine regions like North America, Argentina, South Africa, etc. do not have a variety of native grapes that can be used to produce wine. Additionally, since the French winemakers have always been the authority in wine making throughout the world with the exception of the Italians, who use pretty impressive methods to produce high quality and award winning wines, have been able to influence wine making in widely known wine regions of the world and use native French grapes to produce wine in these regions. Now, whether or not, these grapes always result in tasty wines in these regions totally depends on the expertise of the wine maker, the terrain and the climate.

In any event, the 9 wine regions of France tend to produce wines that are very much typical to those regions and not characterized by the types of grape that are used to make them. For example in France you usually don't see the name of the grape written on the bottle of the wine, rather you see the region where the wine was produced that has a specific characteristic coming from the climate, the terroir and lastly the type of grape used in that region. That is why, Chassagne Montracher has a different taste and characteristic than Nuits Saint George but both regions use Pinot Noir or Pinot Blanc to produce their wines!

So, in France wines are characterized and known by their regions rather than by their grapes.

I will get into details about each wine producing regions of France in my upcoming articles.