Today I’d like to talk about still table wine service. First thing we need to do is have our coasters and glasses polished and serviettes or service towels neatly folded. And then, when the guest orders the wine, when we go to the cellar, we need to make sure it’s the right wine, checking all details on the wine. Once we’ve got the right wine, we come to present to the guest, we use our clean serviette, and frame the picture, presenting the bottle and announcing the details: “Mountain View Vetner’s Cabernet Sauvignon, Central Coast 2005”. Once the guest has confirmed that’s what they ordered, I can go ahead and place it on a coaster. This coaster could be on my Guerdon, my service trolley, or on the table, or at a service station. My serviette, I could place over my arm or simply on the side of the station, neatly presented. Taking our wine opener, hopefully with a nice sharp knife, we’re going to keep the label facing to the customer who ordered the wine.
Use the knife to cut the capsule underneath the lip, then around the back, and then we cut around the front, and hopefully in one movement, remove the capsule nice and cleanly, put that in our pocket. Then use the inside of the serviette to wipe the top of the cork. If this were an older bottle of wine, pehaps a vintage Bordeaux red wine, then I might have dampened my cloth and used the inside of it and wiped it to get that and then fold it down then the dirty part of the towel can’t be seen. Push the arm with the cork screw directly into the center of the cork; try to turn straight into the center here. Put the lever of the corkscrew right on the lip of the bottle. Use a finger to hold it on there so it doesn’t slip off and potentially shatter the neck of the bottle. Using leverage, lift straight up, as far as it will go, and then quietly finish it by hand. Remove the cork from the corkscrew, place it on a coaster to present to the guest, the corkscrew can go away. Take another clean part of the serviette to wipe the neck of the bottle, pour for the host to taste, lift with a twist, wipe the bottle, and then we wait for them to approve the wine. That’s all there is to it really, if you have any other tips or suggestions then please feel free to leave them in the comments section below. Salud!
If you would like to know more about anything written in today’s article, or perhaps have a hankering for some wine, why not visit us at www.bordeaux-undiscovered.co.uk. We don’t bite, honest!