DRINK BETTER WINE AT HOME WITH ALAIN DUCASSE AT THE DORCHESTER

The Park Lane restaurant’s head sommelier Ruben Desport offered sage advice for upping your vino game: The ultimate tool is a doublehinged corkscrew with a long spiral. Easy to use and very unlikely to break a cork.

I see a trend in using very big wine glasses but not all wines require them. If your glasses at home are smaller, keep the pouring sizes to a minimum; the wine will show much better aromatically.

It’s worth decanting even a low- or mid-priced wine but timing is crucial! There are two questions: how old is the wine? And what style? Fullerbodied wines should be decanted up to four hours.

Lighter, younger wines, should be decanted closer to the serving time, such as 30 minutes before serving.

Be mindful of very old wines: decanting will allow you to remove the sediment but very old wines are fragile and do not require much air. Also, the difference between fruity and savoury. Some people like wine to be fruitdriven, and others savoury. It is worth mentioning if you want one or the other, or a combination of both.

There is a misconception with the term “dry”. Most wines are dry but can be very fruity and that does not necessarily mean the wine is sweet or has residual sugar.