 northsea's Pinhão Travelogues | | | | Title [Click to view] | Travel Year | Pictures | | "TONGING" (Uncork) a bottle of Port or Wine | June, 2006 |  8 |
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| Page Views: 401 Last Visit to Pinhão: June, 2006 | "TONGING" (Uncork) a bottle of Port or Wine by northsea - last update: Jul 16, 2006 |
A bottle that has been aged for many years usually has a cork that will be extremely difficult to remove, and care has to be taken that the sediments in the bottle are not disturbed. Also, the cork can break easily, allowing pieces of cork to fall into the bottle.
A traditional way to open vintage bottles is by "tonging", snapping the neck of the bottle right below the cork, using a set of tongs. |
|  | Step one Heat the circle shaped part of the tongs in the burner until red hot. The entire ring should be well heated. |
| The grip on the neck of the bottle |
| | Step two Carefully place the tongs around the neck of the standing bottle, right below the cork. Hold the tongs in place for a few minutes |
| Cooling the neck of the bottle |
| | Step three Remove the tongs, and immediately pass some ice-cold water around the heated area of the bottle neck. The glass will break with a clicking sound. Continue passing the ice around the neck for a few more seconds. |
| Removing the neck of the bottle and the cork |
| | Step four Carefully release the upper neck with the cork of the bottle. This should be done without any resistance from the bottle. |
| | Step five If the bottle neck with the cork, did not broke off completely, reheat the tongs and repeat the procedure. |
| | Step six Pour the wine slowly and carefully into the decanter. This should be done against the light of a candle. As soon as the sendiment becomes cloudy, stop the decanting immediately. |
| | Step seven The cloudy sendiment extract from the bottle. |
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| northsea's Pinhão Travelogues | | | | Title [Click to view] | Travel Year | Pictures | | "TONGING" (Uncork) a bottle of Port or Wine | June, 2006 | 8 |
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 Comments for northsea about Pinhão | | | | |
nada1712 Fri Sep 26, 2008 08:38 UTC
lovely and interesting pages on Pinhao | Museeuw Thu May 24, 2007 09:33 UTC
Hodverdomme, 't stoan ier e poar skwoane tiptjes wèj. :-) Greetings from Lichtervelde/Brussels. | pocketpiglet Thu Aug 3, 2006 07:48 UTC
I was planning to visit Pinhao and other small places but I liked Porto so much I couldn't get out and stayed there for the whole week. Enjoyed your photos and tips here, well done. | Bwana_Brown Sun Jul 2, 2006 15:48 UTC
A great summary of Pinhao and the port-wine region of Portugal! We loved our short stay in Pinhao after the scenic drive along the winding riverside highway. |
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