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In this episode we’ll find out how to hold a wine glass, talk about the right wine glasses to use and learn about the smooth jazz of wines, Merlot.

The best way to hold the glass is very simple.  Grab the stem and try and keep you hand off the bowl of the glass.  The reason wine glasses have stems is because temperature is very important to the taste.  Our hand is the magic 98.6 degrees and if you hold the glass by the bowl, it will warm very quickly.   Not to mention you can crush the glass…

 Now lets go to our question of the week

 Pamela Siege writes in

Do you use the same glass to serve both red and white wine and how are champagne glasses different?

Pamela, excellent question and one that causes a lot of confusion with wine drinkers.

Wine glasses have evolved to an extreme over the years.  Remember years ago with you had one small glass that was used for everything.  Now if you go out to a restaurant, red wine glasses seem to be so big that you would think they could hold the whole bottle.

Pamela, there is a school of thought that the shape of the glass make a big difference to how the aromas are sent up to your nose.  Red wines have more aromas and if the glass is big enough to get your snooze down in the glass, you will get more aroma, and then more flavor.  I agree with that to a small degree, but remember glass companies are trying to sell glasses, to.

Champagne glasses are called flutes because of their long narrow shape.  These glasses are shaped like this because it makes more bubbles flow to the top of the glass and it just looks nicer. 

Pamela, here’s what you do about glasses.  I’m presuming you want to forgo the plastic cup method so get a set of regular sized glasses to serve your white and then get a bigger set to serve your reds.  A set of champagne flutes would round off your collection.

If any of you would like to be more specific, I have a chart on my website that shows you specifically what glass is supposed to go with what variety of wine.  You can download it free by using the link on the screen or the link in the notes below.

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For reading her question on air, Pamela Siege receives a $25 gift certificate to use toward custom labels wine at AmberCrestWinery.com    If you would like to submit a question to be read on air, click the ask mark pages and type away. 

Now lets go to our wine of the week.

Merlot

Merlot is actually low in tannins, usually low amounts of oak and has an easy to drink plumy taste. 

To me this wine is a lot like the white wine pinot grigio in that you may not be fanatically in love when you taste this wine but you definitely won’t hate it.  For this reason, it is a wonderful wine to serve at a party or wedding when you have various wine preferences.

It’s probably the first red wine that I suggest you try.

It’s home is in the Bordeaux region of France.  It is typically blended with cabernet there to give that region its distinctive “Bordeaux style” wines.

In the US it can also be blended with cabernet but is often sold as its own variety.

So here’s the wine skinny on Merlot:

*Smooth and easy to drink

*Sometimes blended with Cabernet Sauvignon to mellow the taste

*Usually has a hint of oak

*Great to serve at weddings or parties

Give merlot a try, you’ll be glad you did.

OK wine fans, that concludes our show for this week. Please remember to sign up for show updates and leave your comment in the comment section.   Our next episode will show you how to store your wine, give you the skinny on wine Clubs and talk about Pinot Noir.  To see all of our past episodes go to Really Fun Wine Show.com  and click the past episodes button.  So see ya next time. Same bat time, same bat channel. Cheers!