I remember reading the late Marcella Hazan’s first cookbook in the 1980’s and being taken struck by her confiding that the secret of all savvy cooks is . . . water. She went on to explain how either adding a bit or simmering out a bit would balance flavors and adjust the consistency of a sauce or soup.
Many people would be surprised to learn that water is also a secret ingredient in winemaking. Wine is typically 85% water, and it’s the ratio of water to the flavor and aromatic compounds that largely determines the quality, character, and drinkability of wine.
European wine law specifies an upper limit to how much juice can be taken from a single plot of vines and still qualify for an appellation designation. It’s a concentration issue, since allowing for variations in planting density, the more dilute the juice, the less flavor and aromatic interest the resulting wine is likely to show. But wine can sin with both left and right hand. Wine made with very ripe or overripe fruit will have less water and, while more concentrated, may have correspondingly less to offer in the way of refreshment.
Do winemakers always get it right? They don’t, in part because they can’t foresee the circumstances under which it will be drunk. And that means that sometimes we have to take matters into our own hands.
Q. When are you justified in fiddling with the water content of your wine?
A. Anytime you sense a disconnect between the occasion, the time of day, the temperature, or the menu and what you find coming out of the bottle.
Today, the notion of adding a few drops of water to adjust the wine to the context may be considered declassé — scandalous, even. It wasn’t always so. According to the Greeks, it was Dionysus who first taught humans to mix wine and water in rational proportions.
Taking wine ‘neat’ was a barbarian habit, not something civilized people engaged in. Indeed, adjusting wine to the occasion has an impeccable historical pedigree, and there’s no reason to refrain from playing wine god if you think the situation warrants it.
For most of us, the closest we come to permitting ourselves to participate in this historic practice is the moment we contemplate dropping an ice cube into our glass of wine on a hot day. So, what about it? Is adding ice to wine ever a good idea? It can be.
Putting your wine in contact with ice is going to have three effects. It will drop the wine’s temperature; dilute it somewhat, and lower the concentration of alcohol. So, think like a winemaker and begin by determining what you want to achieve not overshoot the mark.
The surest way for things to get quickly and irrevocably out of hand is to put ice in your glass and then pour wine in after it. Do this and your wine will almost immediately become too cold and too little wine-like. My preferred way of going about this is to place a cube or two in a stainless funnel and position it over a glass. Pour a few ounces of wine over the ice so that it drains into the glass immediately. The wine will only be in contact with the ice for the briefest moment. You should now find the temperature comfortably cool, the wine pleasantly fresh and a bit lighter on its feet. You’ve put all three effects into play, but in a completely controlled way, one serving at a time.
This pour-over technique works for all white, orange, pink, fizzy and light-bodied, low-tannin red wines. Variables are the size of the cube, the number of them, and the speed with which you pour. I use just one large 2″ cube, but you could use the more common, smaller, elongated ones. For denser-bodied, higher tannin reds, you’ll probably want to skip the ice and just drizzle a bit of cool water into the glass. It takes very little to have a good effect.
When ready for a second glass, just repeat with the same cube, if you’re using one. As the ice in the funnel diminishes in size over several rounds, either add a cube or slow the pour a bit. Experiment.
It’s actually hard to go wrong with this approach, since, if you find that the wine has become a bit too light or chilled for your taste, you can always add a bit back from the bottle to get it where you like.
And if anyone objects, just say Dionysus himself said it was perfectly fine.