Knowing how and when to pour

The wine is decanted, the turkey’s carved and your family’s around the table. Now all that’s left is to pour the wine. We all know how to pour a glass of wine, don’t we?

Or do we?

Wine service at home is different than in restaurants, which typically pour 6-ounce glasses. But enjoying wine to its fullest means being able to swirl it in the glass, releasing even more aromas -- and a 6-ounce pour doesn’t leave enough room to swirl without the wine ending up on the tablecloth.

Instead, pour just 3 or 4 ounces of wine in each glass, leaving plenty of room for swirling. It’s the job of the host to make sure everyone’s glasses are filled.

The correct temperature for serving wine? Sona sommelier Mark Mendoza likes to serve red wines at 65 to 68 degrees. To bring them down a few degrees from room temperature, just put them in the fridge for 20 minutes. Mendoza likes white wines to be a touch cooler, which means keeping them in the fridge until you are putting the finishing touches on the meal. Just pull them out 10 to 15 minutes before serving.

Bonnie Graves, a wine educator and former Spago sommelier, is less traditional. “I like my white wines warmer than most Americans. Wines with complexity and layers, served too cold, you can’t taste anything,� she says. “I prefer to serve whites just a few degrees below room temperature.�

With less expensive white wines, however, the cold is a good disguise. It can mask inadequacies.

-- Corie Brown