The Wine Raconteur

I realize that I am way off on a tangent, which is what I get for trying to clean the house in preparation for a big family dinner.  I started looking at all the items that we have received and purchased over the years.  We have different items from simple paper rings, to little pieces of stemware jewelry to identify people’s wine glasses, when all of the stemware matching at a party.  We have place holders for the dining room table that are in pewter for assigned seating with a wine theme.

We have a wonderful little gadget called the Vinturi, which is a rapid aerator for wine, to give maximum air to the wine directly from the bottle.  This can be used directly over a wine glass or into a decanter.  I have found that this helps some wines immensely, as soon as the bottle is opened.

To keep the table clean, which sometimes is impossible, we have a squashed or flattened wine bottle with a Duckhorn Winery Paraduxx label for resting service wear on.  We also have different wine bottle coasters to keep any drips from staining the table linens.

We have different items for chilling wine.  We have a floor piece ice bucket, as well as a marble wine table top chiller for a wine that has already been chilled.  We also have a gadget that you put in the refrigerator and then if you bring a bottle of wine from the cellar, you insert the tube into the bottle of wine and chill the wine from the inside out.

Also for the table for decoration and usefulness is a set of sterling salt and pepper shakers that are shaped like two wine glasses.  We also have a centerpiece item that is of two butlers that will hold a bottle of wine to showcase the dinner wine before we are seated for dinner.

To keep everything neat after each opening of a new bottle of wine, we have received these baskets or cages to drop the corks into.  I have been saving the corks, and when I am fully motivated I will finish the crown molding in my wine cellar with the corks that I have saved.

Finally, because I have a Bride that likes to have coasters under every glass, especially in the living room or the family room we have coasters.  Yes we have coasters, all with wine themes.  My favorite set has depictions of famous labels of French Burgundy wines in an antique finish.  Then my Bride also enjoys some hot plates to put on the table that have funny little whimsical sayings on them.

I realize none of this is truly about wine, but what happens when you get two people together who like to collect esoteric items that can be used.

There is an old joke, that nobody has ever heard of left over wine, alas that is not the case in reality.  One of the best laws that occurred in Michigan is that you can now leave a restaurant with an unfinished bottle of wine, rather than trying to finish off the bottle before you leave (just remember to put the unfinished bottle in your trunk and not in your back seat).

I have seen articles that recommend that left over wine can be frozen in ice trays, and then use these wine cubes later when cooking, when you need to add wine to a dish or sauce.  I think that this idea has merit, though I have never tried it.  So what can one do with left over wine?

The first thought is just to use the cork that was used to initially seal the bottle of wine, but this is not the best idea as cork is porous.  There are a lot of fancy bottle stoppers out on the market, and through the course of years we have received a lot of them as gifts.  Some are rather plain, some are fancy wrought in metals and some are even done in crystal.  We even have a special clamping stopper that was created for storing left over champagne which keeps the bubbles from dissipating.

One of the handiest items that we have is tool called the VacuVin.  This is a handy little device which has a rubber cork that is placed in the bottle, then the VacuVin is put on top of the rubber cork and one just lifts the handle up and down and it pumps out any air in the bottle before storage.  This has worked very well for us through the years, when we do have left over wine.  In fact there have been times where the wine ended up tasting better the second or third day then when it was originally opened.