Eastenders’ Sharon Mitchell has done some controversial things in her time, but her behaviour on Tuesday night was truly shocking.
No, we’re not talking about the affair. We’re talking about the fact that Sharon – you know, the woman who grew up in The Queen Vic and previously ran The Albert – does not know how to store wine.
During last night’s episode, Shazza opened her kitchen cupboard, picked up an *open* bottle of white wine and poured it straight into the glass.
Sacrilege.
Viewers could not believe their eyes.
Janet Harrison, from Cracking Wines, tells HuffPost UK that when you buy a new bottle of white wine it’s best to store it “at a constant temperature, not in the kitchen as that heats up and cools down a lot.”
That much we all knew. But she also recommends opting for a dark place, such as a cupboard under the stairs on in another room, and putting the bottle in the fridge a couple of hours before you need it.
“If you get a new bottle of white and store it upright in the fridge door for any length of time, there is a danger that the cork (if it has one) will dry out and shrink, leaving chance for air to get in,” she explains. “This is why you should really store wine on its side, so the cork has contact with the wine.”
Once the wine is opened, it can be stored in the fridge with a screw cap or cork in, but Harrison says it shouldn’t be left there indefinitely.
For medium/full bodied whites such as a good bottle of Chardonnay or wine to go with food, she recommends bottles are lightly chilled at around 10-13 degrees.
“Light wines – quaffing wines, the likes Sharon might have – should be chilled at 7-10 degrees,” she says. “Many people serve these sorts of wines too cold straight out of the fridge, but it can kill the fruit flavours. You’ll find it improves once you’ve had it out of the fridge for a bit and opened/poured.”
That said, it shouldn’t just been kept in the kitchen cupboard, sorry Sharon.