As a wine connoisseur, it is certain that you have tasted some of the best vintages the industry has to offer, including wines as old as 20years. Which means that you are no stranger to the way an old vintage would be opened as opposed to a relatively newer one.
Would it be something of a surprise to see a sommelier emerge, not only with your bottle of wine and glasses, but a tong, a small gas cylinder or a heating device, and a small ice bucket. Only that, instead of ice tongs or scoop to get them out, it is a little brush.
Wait! It is not what you think.
As you may well know, vintages can be left to age for years (if done properly) without completely losing its flavour. However, the longer it is left in storage, the more likely it is that the cork will disintegrate if you try to pass a corkscrew through it. One way to avoid this while giving you access to the rich content of the bottle is to sabre it. Sabering wines is a delightful art that involves using a sabre to take off the top of the bottle, alongside its cork.
Another method, which is less dramatic and maybe a bit safer, is tonging. This process involves using custom-designed tongs to achieve the same result of opening aged vintages without touching the corks. The tongs are heated until they are red-hot. Then, they are clamped around the neck of the bottle and slowly rotated to make sure the heat goes all the way round. Once the bottle is well heated, which should be after a minute or two, a brush or cloth dipped in ice is applied to the heated area. This drastic change from very hot to freezing causes the glass to break exactly where the tongs were applied, and with the barrier off, the wine is then decanted while the broken edges are covered in wax to avoid accidents.
So, the next time you find yourself before a sommelier with hot tongs, just relax and enjoy the show.