WineWhine # 14
January, 2010
Welcome Linda Henke of Antigonish, N.S., Ian MacGregor of Vancouver, B.C, and Sharon Cochran of Prince Albert, B.C. to the Whine.
On being disappointed: Most of you have had this experience. You are in a restaurant celebrating someone’s anniversary or birthday and you decide to splurge on a bottle of Cabernet Sauvignon from Napa. The waiter (a sommelier wouldn’t do this to you) pulls the cork and offers a small amount from this $ 65. bottle (worth about $ 27. in your local store). Your cheeks (the ones near your mouth) are drawn severely inward, all saliva disappears from your mouth and you wonder who put the used teabag in your glass.
An even worse experience (although less common) is when someone opens that very special bottle that had been saved for just the right occasion. After Christmas dinner my son brought out a bottle of ‘98 Chateau-Neuf-du-Pape that he had been saving for some years. When poured the tell-tale brown color and the translucent ring where the wine met the glass forewarned us that this wine was going to be a big disappointment.
In the first case the wine was way too young (naturally the restaurant’s wine list did not indicate the year). The tannins in the Cabernet had not had time to mellow sufficiently for the fruit flavors to sufficiently come through. In the second case, the wine had simply been cellared too long (Chateau-Neuf is best at about 6-7 years).
Yes, I am back to my constant theme of cellaring wine for just the right time. What follows are suggestions for avoiding wines that are either too young or too old.
On getting started: O.K. you are not prepared to hire a contractor to convert your basement guest room into a climate-controlled cave for 2500 bottles. You don’t need to. My suggestion is that you start with a 48 bottle cache. No cost, no work.
Find the coolest spot in your basement (perhaps this is the back of a closet against an uninsulated exterior wall). Pick up 4 cardboard boxes from your liqour store, lay them on their sides, and you are well on your way. Since you may not be able to see the labels without pulling out each bottle (and wine doesn’t like movement) you can stick a piece of masking tape at the cork end of the bottle and write the name and year of the wine on the tape.
Now, the real fun part is picking the 48 bottles to store. Why 48? If you average two years between purchase and opening and you replace the wines as they are drunk, you will be able to have a special bottle twice each month. The rest of the time you can continue to drink your inexpensive wines that won’t benefit from cellaring.
By the way, I have shown you a couple of photos of my cellar, but with the qualification that is usually found in Frank Magazine “NOT EXACTLY AS ILLUSTRATED”.
Suggestions on which wines to store?
1. Wines with lots of tannins benefit most from aging, so lay down the following varietals: Cabernet Sauvignon, Syrah/Shiraz, Zinfadel, Malbec, and Merlot. These have been listed from those that need the most time to those that need the least.
2. Wines costing more than $ 20. Most cheap wines do not benefit from aging. On the other hand, don’t buy really, really expensive wines. You may hesitate to open that really special bottle and keep it until it has passed its peak. Now, that’s a bigger tragedy than opening a wine that’s too young. I have several bottles of 15-20 year old wine in my cellar so if you want to see a grown man cry, come on over and watch me open a bottle of brown wine.
3. Buy wines from South America, California and France. The South American wines will not need to cellar as long as the others. This will help you get started. The good French wines will benefit from longer cellaring so don’t look to drink those next year. The Californian wines will also benefit from two or more years on their sides.
4. In one or two years select a bottle of Chilean or Argentinian wine (which will now be three or four years older than the year on the label). Try and buy a bottle of the exact same wine but which is two years younger. Open the two wines and you should be convinced about the value of your little cache.
Try something new: There are literally thousands of different varietals (grapes) that are grown to make wine. Yet, most of these are not widely marketed. Probably most of us drink only a half dozen different red wines. So, I am going to suggest you try something other than your usual Merlot, Shiraz, Zinfadel, or Pinot Noir.
The two varietals that I am suggesting are both from South America. They are neither light nor heavy, are inexpensive, go well with food; and, most importantly for some, they can be drunk quite young.
Carmenere: This grape variety originated in France and was used as a blending wine in Bordeaux. Unfortunately, the not infrequent September rains were not good for this late maturing grape. After the Phylloxera devastation in the 19th centurey, the French gave up on this wine and the only Carmenere now found in Europe is of very low quality and is grown in northern Italy.
In the 1850’s this grape was transported to Chile where it was widely planted. For some reason (perhaps because the vines looked similar) Carmenere and Merlot were interspersed in the vineyards and it was not until 1994 that DNA testing finally proved that the Chileans were growing Carmenere and not something mislabelled Chilean Merlot. Since 1994 the Chileans have put tremendous effort in producing good quality Carmenere and in fact it is the most widely grown grape in Chile.
The nose of this wine tends to be smoky and spicy and it has a taste that reminds me a bit of sour cherries. It pairs very nicely with barbecued beef (try it instead of Australian Shiraz). Is is less astringent than Cabernet which is why it can be drunk young.
Bonarda: If the Chileans claim their very own variety (Carmenere), the Argentinians claim two such varieties (Malbec and Bonarda). Bonarda originated in Italy and was probably transported to Argentina by the hordes of Italian immigrants who flocked to Buenos Aires in the 19th century to work in the meat-packing plants. As an aside you might find it surprising to know that more than 50% of the present population of Argentina is of Italian descent.
Sometimes this medium to heavy wine can taste a bit sharp, but it has lots of flavour and reminds me a bit of cranberry. It goes better with food than as a sipping wine.
Suggestions from Offering 192: This time I have four wines to recommend, two reds and two whites. Both reds are for immediate or almost immediate drinking and neither is very expensive. # 5355 is yet another fine wine from my favorite producer in Toro (Colegiata by Bodegas Farina) and should be wonderful with your favorite roasts. #5370 offers a blend of Tempranillo and Cabernet and should be a good, inexpensive quaffing wine. As usual I recommend the Vinho Verde (#5377) from Portugal. This cracking wine (sort of like a cross between a still wine and a sparkling wine) will make a great summer drink (assuming it reaches you by then). If you want 6 bottles of really great Chardonnay and if you are willing to cellar a white wine for a bit, order yourself a case of # 5400 Pouilly-Fuisse. It will be worth the exalted French price.
Link to article: Finally, thanks to Whiner Yvon Grenier who brought this article on British Claret to my attention:
www.economist.com/world/britain/displaystory.cfm?story_id=15108718
January, 2010
Welcome Linda Henke of Antigonish, N.S., Ian MacGregor of Vancouver, B.C, and Sharon Cochran of Prince Albert, B.C. to the Whine.
On being disappointed: Most of you have had this experience. You are in a restaurant celebrating someone’s anniversary or birthday and you decide to splurge on a bottle of Cabernet Sauvignon from Napa. The waiter (a sommelier wouldn’t do this to you) pulls the cork and offers a small amount from this $ 65. bottle (worth about $ 27. in your local store). Your cheeks (the ones near your mouth) are drawn severely inward, all saliva disappears from your mouth and you wonder who put the used teabag in your glass.
An even worse experience (although less common) is when someone opens that very special bottle that had been saved for just the right occasion. After Christmas dinner my son brought out a bottle of ‘98 Chateau-Neuf-du-Pape that he had been saving for some years. When poured the tell-tale brown color and the translucent ring where the wine met the glass forewarned us that this wine was going to be a big disappointment.
In the first case the wine was way too young (naturally the restaurant’s wine list did not indicate the year). The tannins in the Cabernet had not had time to mellow sufficiently for the fruit flavors to sufficiently come through. In the second case, the wine had simply been cellared too long (Chateau-Neuf is best at about 6-7 years).
Yes, I am back to my constant theme of cellaring wine for just the right time. What follows are suggestions for avoiding wines that are either too young or too old.
On getting started: O.K. you are not prepared to hire a contractor to convert your basement guest room into a climate-controlled cave for 2500 bottles. You don’t need to. My suggestion is that you start with a 48 bottle cache. No cost, no work.
Find the coolest spot in your basement (perhaps this is the back of a closet against an uninsulated exterior wall). Pick up 4 cardboard boxes from your liqour store, lay them on their sides, and you are well on your way. Since you may not be able to see the labels without pulling out each bottle (and wine doesn’t like movement) you can stick a piece of masking tape at the cork end of the bottle and write the name and year of the wine on the tape.
Now, the real fun part is picking the 48 bottles to store. Why 48? If you average two years between purchase and opening and you replace the wines as they are drunk, you will be able to have a special bottle twice each month. The rest of the time you can continue to drink your inexpensive wines that won’t benefit from cellaring.
By the way, I have shown you a couple of photos of my cellar, but with the qualification that is usually found in Frank Magazine “NOT EXACTLY AS ILLUSTRATED”.
Suggestions on which wines to store?
1. Wines with lots of tannins benefit most from aging, so lay down the following varietals: Cabernet Sauvignon, Syrah/Shiraz, Zinfadel, Malbec, and Merlot. These have been listed from those that need the most time to those that need the least.
2. Wines costing more than $ 20. Most cheap wines do not benefit from aging. On the other hand, don’t buy really, really expensive wines. You may hesitate to open that really special bottle and keep it until it has passed its peak. Now, that’s a bigger tragedy than opening a wine that’s too young. I have several bottles of 15-20 year old wine in my cellar so if you want to see a grown man cry, come on over and watch me open a bottle of brown wine.
3. Buy wines from South America, California and France. The South American wines will not need to cellar as long as the others. This will help you get started. The good French wines will benefit from longer cellaring so don’t look to drink those next year. The Californian wines will also benefit from two or more years on their sides.
4. In one or two years select a bottle of Chilean or Argentinian wine (which will now be three or four years older than the year on the label). Try and buy a bottle of the exact same wine but which is two years younger. Open the two wines and you should be convinced about the value of your little cache.
Try something new: There are literally thousands of different varietals (grapes) that are grown to make wine. Yet, most of these are not widely marketed. Probably most of us drink only a half dozen different red wines. So, I am going to suggest you try something other than your usual Merlot, Shiraz, Zinfadel, or Pinot Noir.
The two varietals that I am suggesting are both from South America. They are neither light nor heavy, are inexpensive, go well with food; and, most importantly for some, they can be drunk quite young.
Carmenere: This grape variety originated in France and was used as a blending wine in Bordeaux. Unfortunately, the not infrequent September rains were not good for this late maturing grape. After the Phylloxera devastation in the 19th centurey, the French gave up on this wine and the only Carmenere now found in Europe is of very low quality and is grown in northern Italy.
In the 1850’s this grape was transported to Chile where it was widely planted. For some reason (perhaps because the vines looked similar) Carmenere and Merlot were interspersed in the vineyards and it was not until 1994 that DNA testing finally proved that the Chileans were growing Carmenere and not something mislabelled Chilean Merlot. Since 1994 the Chileans have put tremendous effort in producing good quality Carmenere and in fact it is the most widely grown grape in Chile.
The nose of this wine tends to be smoky and spicy and it has a taste that reminds me a bit of sour cherries. It pairs very nicely with barbecued beef (try it instead of Australian Shiraz). Is is less astringent than Cabernet which is why it can be drunk young.
Bonarda: If the Chileans claim their very own variety (Carmenere), the Argentinians claim two such varieties (Malbec and Bonarda). Bonarda originated in Italy and was probably transported to Argentina by the hordes of Italian immigrants who flocked to Buenos Aires in the 19th century to work in the meat-packing plants. As an aside you might find it surprising to know that more than 50% of the present population of Argentina is of Italian descent.
Sometimes this medium to heavy wine can taste a bit sharp, but it has lots of flavour and reminds me a bit of cranberry. It goes better with food than as a sipping wine.
Suggestions from Offering 192: This time I have four wines to recommend, two reds and two whites. Both reds are for immediate or almost immediate drinking and neither is very expensive. # 5355 is yet another fine wine from my favorite producer in Toro (Colegiata by Bodegas Farina) and should be wonderful with your favorite roasts. #5370 offers a blend of Tempranillo and Cabernet and should be a good, inexpensive quaffing wine. As usual I recommend the Vinho Verde (#5377) from Portugal. This cracking wine (sort of like a cross between a still wine and a sparkling wine) will make a great summer drink (assuming it reaches you by then). If you want 6 bottles of really great Chardonnay and if you are willing to cellar a white wine for a bit, order yourself a case of # 5400 Pouilly-Fuisse. It will be worth the exalted French price.
Link to article: Finally, thanks to Whiner Yvon Grenier who brought this article on British Claret to my attention:
www.economist.com/world/britain/displaystory.cfm?story_id=15108718
