Wine Whine #3

Ron’s wine whine (November 2008)

Today’s whine is divided into three sections; the first exhorting you to order lots from Opimian Special Offering # 45 , the second is an anecdote on wine snobbery; and the third contains some comments on aging wine.

Part One: By now you should have received Cellar Offering # 45. There are so many good wines in this offering that I hardly know where to start. In recent years I have had very good luck with both Sergio Traverso wines and those of Jose Gil-Fournier. I recommend the following:
# 4735 although expensive ($28.17) will give you a chance to taste the wonderful brut nature wines available only from Argentina. If you like champagne-type wine these wines have only one-half of the sugar of champagnes or cavas
# 4737 Torrontes. ($ 16.17) will be very tannic so I suggest at least two hours of decanting, but an interesting wine if you are feeling adventurous
# 4739 tempranillo ($15.67) will give you a wine with a lot more flavour than the more common tempranillos from Spain
# 4744 three different kinds of malbec ($ 24.17) I can’t resist this one
# 4753 Mendozan malbec may need a little cellaring but will be fabulous with steak.

. Now I suggest you look at the wines from Beaujolais. Beaujolais is made from 100% gamay and can be wonderfully fruity for a very light wine. Beaujolais can be awful (try Beaujolais nouveau if you wish to be sucked in by marketing over merit) or it can be superb. There are three levels of Beaujolais. First there is simple Beaujolais which can come from any one of the 38 communes in the district and which is usually not worth drinking. One level up is Beaujolais Villages which is a blend of wines from the 10 top villages. The very best Beaujolais is named for the individual village (one of the 10) from which it comes. Normally these are hard to find in Nova Scotia, but Offering # 45 has several. I recommend you pick any one of the following # 4773 from Brouilly, # 4774 from Chiroubles, # 4775 from Chenas, # 4776 from Moulin a Vent, # 4777 from Morgon or # 4778 from Julienas.

Part Two: In my last whine I talked about ordering and tasting wine in a restaurant. I don’t dislike waiters on principal, but I do think they are for the most part poorly trained. (Trattoria della Nonna in Lunenburg is a big exception). Now, as you know, I am a wine snob, which means that whenever I am in the company of another wine snob we compete. One of my favorite competitors is a work colleague with whom I dine a couple of times per year. Jacques loves Italian wine and showing me up on knowledge of Italian wines is particularly easy for him. However, last week he surprised me by ordering a Chilean wine (what I think of as my forte) in an expensive restaurant in downtown Toronto. Not only did he choose a great wine that I didn’t know, but he also demonstrated his Gallic superiority with the Anglo waiter by refusing to taste the wine until the waiter brought a better polished glass.

Part Three: A good red wine is best when it is “properly aged”. Lots of things in life are best in the middle years (operatic tenors, academics, professional golfers, to say nothing of beautiful women). But what does “properly aged” really mean. In terms of wine it is safe to say the every red wine improves for a time, stays at its peak for a time, and then starts a downward slope until it is nothing but vinegar. Some wines mature quickly, have a short time at their peak and then turn brown and musty almost overnight. Others mature very slowly and stay at their peak for a very long time. A general rule of thumb is that the number of years a wine will stay at its peak is equal to the number of years it took to get there.

There are three variables that determine how quickly a wine matures: (a) varietal (kind of grape), (b) quality (whether the vintner chose the best grapes for his/her gran reserva or used the rest for a plonc), and (c) the country of origin.

(a) The more tannin in the wine the longer it needs to age. The tannins are what makes a young wine taste sour, but allow the fruit flavors to develop over time. Gamay (the grape of Beaujolais) matures very quickly as does Sangiovese (the grape of Chianti). Usually these are best in 1-3 years from bottling (meaning they are ready when you bring them home). Merlots need some aging. Zinfadels and Malbecs need 3 or 4 years. Cabernet Sauvignons, especially the good ones take a lot of aging (at least 5 years for a medium quality Cab.)

(b) Some countries make this easy to identify their better wines. Spain, for example, calls its good wines “reserva” and its great wines “gran reserva”. France likes to make everything difficult and its wine labels are almost as confusing as those from Italy. Price is sometimes a help. A $ 12 Cab should be drunk within 3 years (or better still served to those guests your spouse insisted you invite) A $ 40 Cab needs a long cellaring.

(c) The more dry sunny days a wine region has the greater maturity of the grapes at picking. Thus, in Argentina the grapes have started to shrivel before they are picked. This means that the tannins have started to mellow and the wine will age relatively quickly. However, in Bordeaux the grapes are picked relatively early in their life cycle and need a lot of time to fully mature. Thus, a 1st growth medoc may need 15 years to reach its peak. (Don’t worry, none of you can probably afford these wines anyway).

Cellaring your wines until they have reached their peak is one of life’s great pleasures. However, most Canadian houses are not built with a “Cave”, so how do you age your wines? Next time I’ll whine on how to store wines without spending what’s left of your pension funds building an expensive cellar.