As the Tour de France draws to a close, Anthony and Melissa open a bottle of vin rouge and take the mystery out of tableside wine presentation.

Video Transcription

[Music Playing] Anthony: Welcome to the art of the drink video Podcast. My name is Anthony Caporale. And today, I am working with our July drink art girl, Melissa. Melissa: Hello. Anthony: Hi honey. So, big sporting event for July is the Tour De France. In honor of the Tour De France, we are going to do a little bit about wine. But you know, wine, you can do months and months on wine. So, what I want to focus on is just the wine presentation, all right? So, first, we are going to start with a bottle of wine and the thing that I want everyone to know is when you are opening wine, this is what I want you to use, this is called a waiter’s wine tool. Melissa: Okay. Anthony: All right, it is got the knife to cut the foil. It has the corkscrew to take the cork out and it has this little lever to help you work the cork out and I will show you how to use all that but that is all you need, and it is the best tool. First thing when you buy a bottle of wine, which should happen is the server should present the bottle to you and what you want to check is, you want to check the vineyard, which is the producer, the winery. You want to check the style of wine, whether it is a merlot or caberneigh, make sure it is a ripe grape and you want to check the vintage which is the date of harvest of the grapes. All right, that is just to make sure that you are actually getting the bottle of wine that you ordered. Melissa: Got you. Anthony: First thing serve is going to do, we are going to present the bottle of wine and you are supposed to read the label. So, do that. Melissa: I will. Anthony: Next thing that happens is you take the knife out of the waiters wine tool and most wine bottles will have a lip and I want you to cut under the lip. Melissa: Okay., Anthony: Put your thumb opposite the knife and use the point of the knife and I just want you to just rotate the bottle. Now, if you are in a fancy restaurant, they are going to tell you that you should keep the label facing the host the whole time and you are right, you should. But, it takes a little bit of practice so I do not want you to worry about that. Melissa: Okay. Anthony: All right? Once you have scored the foil, you could just pull the foil off and the whole key with the wine presentation is everything goes into your pocket, nothing goes on the table including bottle of wine. Melissa: Got you. Anthony: All right now, if there is two lips, I want you to cut below the bottom lip and that is that the wine does not come in contact with the foil because it might change the taste of the wine. Melissa: Got you. Anthony: Great. So, you put the knife away and now I take out my corkscrew and I take the point of the corkscrew right into the middle of the cork. Melissa: Okay. Anthony: I just push it really gently and I give it a twist. And that is going to actually make the corkscrew slightly off center, that is okay. Melissa: Okay. Anthony: That is want you want. And now, you just turn the corkscrew. Do not push. Do not pull. Just turn the corkscrew until there is one turn left on the corkscrew. Melissa: One turn, got it. Anthony: If you go too far, you are going to break the cork. Melissa: Okay. Anthony: You are going to go all the way through and you got to pop a little piece cork into the wine. Melissa: Oh. Anthony: If you do not go far enough when you try to get the cork out, it is going to actually break. You will not have enough of the corkscrew in the wine. Melissa: Okay. Anthony: All right? So, this is called the two stage wine tool. I am going to take my finger like I am shooting a gun. I am going to wrap my finger around this lever portion and I sit the first of these ridges onto the lip of the bottle of wine. Right now, I take my thumb and I put it on top of the hinge and I just lift very-very gently, it comes right out. This is actually a machine. It does all the work for you. Melissa: Good. Anthony: Now with the two stage tool, I actually pull it up and I go onto that first ledge and again, thumb on the hinge and I just pull it up. All right, do not take the