Wine Vintages, do they matter?

Crush. The word springs hope eternal for wine lovers. Will this harvest yield grapes of superior quality? What about the quantity? Is this the vintage I should invest in, or is it one to avoid?

With each new year the grapes have been affected by variables as diverse as hail, rains, and burning sun. Variability is the key here, each year's challenges and successes shape the character of the wines to be. With modern winemaking, changing styles and the seeming unendingly sunny days of regions like California, how much does vintage really matter anymore?

In an earlier draft of this blog I wrote a dozen paragraphs explaining all of the variables that can effect a vintage. I explored technical details of the winemaking and even grape growing process. I had a great time punching keys and listening to how clever my inner dialog was, but I didn't really answer the question.

Besides being a potentially unwelcome foray into the way my mind works, the first draft pointed out something important for me. This is not as easy a question to answer as I had hoped.

The short answer is that vintages count more in some regions than in others. This is nothing new. Wine writers have been saying this for decades, so what has changed? A lot.

There are regions that didn't even exist a decade ago, especially in places like South America. Many of these wine growing locals were picked expressly because they are not subject to great variations in weather.

There are styles of wine, light and fruity being paramount, that did not exist a decade ago. Changing tastes and improved technology have allowed for these wines to be produced around the world, and they too are not often affected by vintage variation.

Speaking of improving technology, this too has helped to mitigate the effects of an unpredictable growing season.

Regions such as Burgundy in France have always been subject to wildly fluctuating years. And while some blame global warming (or thank it, depending on your point of view) I feel that improvements in winemaking control has been the biggest contributor to the evening out of the peaks and valleys of quality.

California is famed for having near perfect growing conditions. Indeed, a truly poor year in any of the myriad growing areas around the state is almost unheard of. Too much of a good thing used to be the biggest problem with California's vineyards, but great strides have been made in vineyard management to lessen the dangers of the ever present sun.

The trepidation some feel towards improving technology and the globalization of taste, is that the product that they yield will protect us from poor quality at the cost of the occasional bouts of exceptional quality. I don't share this fear for one overwhelming reason; the winemaker.

As long as people are in control of the final product, wine will always retain a degree of character. There will always be something to distinguish one wine from another, if for no other reason that people all have differing tastes. A completely automated process might be able to make the same wine from any vintage, or any region, but there will always be enough smaller producers fighting to keep their individuality.

The vintage game can be hit or miss. People that buy futures and invest in wine have the most to lose from an off year, but also the most to gain from the rare perfect vintage. Most of us can skip the vintage charts when drinking our favorite wines, and only bring them out when the prices start to equal a car payment.

If you exclusively drink Burgundy, Mosels and Rhines, or even Bordeaux, than yes, vintages count. For most other wine lovers vintages are just one more thing that keeps wine exciting and unpredictable.

1987 was not a great year for Bordeaux on most vintage charts. I was working as a wine steward when the 1987 vintage was released. I sold as much 1987 Ch. Mouton as I could get my hands on. It was well priced, approachable young, and surprisingly good. So while it is true that choosing a poor vintage may lead to disappointment, it may be equally true that eschewing a vintage may lead to a missed opportunity.

Wine Forensics, the science of fraud detection

I have had an avalanche of emails asking me about wine forensics. So for both of you that asked, settle in for my usual verbose explanation of a science that if I did not invent, I may have at least named.

Fraud, fire flood, and taxes. Is that wine what it says it is? Was really happened in the fire? Are those wines still good after being soaked in water? What is that collection really worth? Law enforcement agencies and insurance companies are ill equipped to answer these and similar questions. A strong wine background, well trained deductive reasoning, and a deep understanding of basic sciences are required and rarely found in one place.

Two of my favorite cases do a good job of illustrating not only what skills are required, but the scope of the problem that wine forensics hopes to address.

The Case of Storage Sneaks

Mr. X (the names have been changed to protect, well someone). Mr. X stored his wine with a company that rented wine lockers. The wine was temperature controlled, guarded 24 hours a day, and seemingly as safe as it could be. For 20 years he added wines to this long term cellar, and never really thought twice about it.

The day came for him to dredge out a few of his wines, and begin to enjoy the rewards of sustained aging. A 1982 Ch. Petrus, one of the most expensive wines in the world, was his crowning glory, and he had high hopes for the wine. Alas, when he opened it he was disappointed to find a rather dull red wine. He suspected he was a victim fraud.

His wine was insured, as was the locker facility. Suspecting that the retailer that sold him the wine was to blame, he contacted his insurance company. The investigators found that the retail shop had gone out of business, and really didn't know where to turn to next.

They turned to me. They sent me a few bottles of the suspect wine. At first glance it looked fine. In the hand it felt a bit light, as if the bottle was made from a thinner glass than I expected. The capsule, on top of the bottle was also thin, too thin and flimsy for a wine of this class, and from that era. I took a very close look at the label, and while it looked perfect at first, I noticed the slightest bit of white border on one side. An authentic label would have been printed with a bleed (overlap) and there should not be any white showing.

There was now no question that this wine was a fraud. The question now was: who perpetrated the fraud? Was it the retailer back in 84, or did the wine storage company have a part to play?

It was time to taste the wine. Here is where most investigations have trouble. Chemical analysis is incapable of determining where the wine was made, and what quality it was. A least it was then, some recent breakthroughs and even the Chernobyl accident have changed this a bit.

I opened a bottle of the fraudulent Petrus, and found a young new world Cabernet Sauvignon. There was no way this wine was 20 years old. This left the storage company as suspects. A night guard was later convicted of stealing the wine and replacing it with the counterfeit wine. If not ironic, it is at least worth noting that the thief used Cabernet for the replacement, instead of the Merlot that Petrus is made from.

Wine fraud is more widespread than most people think. Not only are very expensive wines counterfeited, but even every day drinking wines. In a recent example in England, the wine that the ferries was selling as a Rioja were found to be fraudulent. When they arrested the suspects they found many thousand more labels, proving that they were counting on quantity to make the venture worthwhile. Tens of thousands of bottles of the wine was sold, without anyone knowing any better.

My next case shows another nefarious side of human nature.

The Case of the Bubbling Bubblies

Ms. Y had a lot of wine. She also had a lot of insurance. She had a mortgage she was having paying, and she had very little prospects for the future. Ms. Y's house burned to the ground one winter evening. Among the many claims of damages she filed were the hundreds of exquisite wines that had been ruined.

I was called in to look at the wines to see if they told me anything, and indeed they did. The condition of the corks and foil looked odd to me. In almost every case they were still attached to the bottles. Experimentation would show that a more likely scenario with a bottle filled with wine, is that the cork would be pushed out all, or part way before the bottle burst. The bottles in question in this fire had been empties, resealed with the hopes of great reward.

My little tests not only led to an arson conviction, but a paper in an fraud investigation journal. I can only imagine how long Ms. Y was saving corks and empties, just waiting for the perfect time to torch her home. I just hope she enjoyed the wines she drank before the fire, as she is not likely to have another bottle any time soon.

I have also worked with the US Customs agency, the IRS and more than a few divorce attorneys in evaluating wine collections. Almost 20 years of appraising wines, and 5 year stint running a wine auction company have made me uniquely qualified to determine value. A quick look through the Wine Price File won't cut it.

Wine forensics is not as sexy as CSI. I don't get to wear a gun or arrest people, and there is unlikely to ever be a movie made of my life, but it is a valuable tool for investigators around the world. Wineries have been fined millions, individuals have been given jail time, and consumers and investors alike have been duped.

It is estimated that total wine fraud cost consumers hundreds of millions a year. Because it is in an industry that steeped in mystique and seemingly difficult to investigate, the amount may be higher than anyone thinks. While insurance companies and law agencies don't keep a wine pro on staff, they can always count on me to be an expert witness.

Part private eye, part wine snob, part tax assessor, I am the guy to call when the shiraz hits the fan.

Keep your wine high and dry!

If it wasn't annoying enough that they were digging up the road outside our house, they most kindly broke the water main, sending a geyser over the roof of our condo. Water cascaded around our building, devastating our gardens, and eventually finding its way into our bedroom, and my office.

I am writing this amidst the hum and roar of fans and heaters. Muddy footprints coat the floor, and everything I own is in a heap in the middle of our house. We have been forced to find temporary lodging, and through it all I am mostly thankful it was so minor.

It is impossible not to think of Katrina, even with a flood as tiny as mine. One of the tragic outcomes of that hurricane, which has been rightfully overshadowed by the human plight, was the loss of some of the worlds great wine collections.

Wine cellars really don't like floods, or fires, or earthquake, or any other disaster. Wine Forensics is not a common term, in fact as far as I know, I coined it. I have on occasion worked with insurance and law enforcement investigators to determine how spoiled wine is, how it may have been damaged, and even on a few cases of fraud (worthy of a blog on its own) and arson. And so it is with a fair amount of experience that I can tell you, wine doesn't like disasters.

How is your wine stored? Do you keep it safe from temperature fluctuations, humidity extremes, vibration and light? Many of you will not be able to say yes, and often that is fine. My "ready rack" those wines I plan to drink in the next month or so, just sit in a bin in my living room. But my better wines, I protect with everything technology gives me, and I bet many of you do as well.

So... How is your wine stored? Not against the vagaries of time, but against the onslaught of disaster. Is it off the floor to guard against flood? What about fire? Ok, fire is tough, but a minor fire can set off sprinklers or bring fire engines and hoses. Ask anyone in the know and they will tell you that even a minor fire can mean enormous water damage. Moldy corks are not a good sign.

Earthquakes have destroyed many a bottle of wine. Not only in the collections of individuals, but in wineries and warehouses as well. If you live in an earthquake prone region you probably have already taken some measures with the rest of the house, just don't forget about the wine. Precautions can start with something basic like a simple rubber mat on the floor (for those lucky enough to have a wine cellar you can walk into).

You can't make everything in your life perfectly safe, and disaster responders will point out that I am just reacting to my recent circumstances, but a little prior planning can go a long way. While making your disaster drill plans don't forget about protecting your most treasured assets, and after securing that wine, don't forget about your family and pets!

I have put up a web page for those voyeurs out there that can't help but slow down and gawk when they pass an accident - you know who you are. You can find it here.

Testing the Wine Enhancer

The human mind, even my self professed nearly perfect one, is awful at being objective. Politicians, Madison Avenue, and Magicians rely on this simple truism in order to ply their trade. And so it was with this keen awareness, and complete distrust in my own judgement, that I set out to create an objective test for the Catania Wine Enhancer.

This nifty looking wine coaster (there are other models available) is said to "Reduce Tannins and Red Wine Headaches, Improves Flavor." The web site is loaded with anecdotal evidence, and testimonies from satisfied users. These users are more than happy with their purchase, and are enjoying the benefits on a daily basis.

Alas, while I can envy those who have found greater wine enjoyment using the Wine Enhancer, my disposition leans more towards empirical evidence. Wine tasting is a very subjective activity, and I was determined to make my test as objective as possible.

Full details on the procedure, and the data that was collected can be downloaded here, but for those who shudder at the thought of wading through a tome of scientific data, I will lead you through a brief synopsis of what I did.

I conducted three tastings, the first was what I would call a strict clinical trial, the other two were much more relaxed. For the clinical trial the wine was tasted double blind, meaning that no one knew what they were tasting, or why.

Three wines were poured. Unbeknownst to the participants, all three were the same wine (although different bottles). The first round the wine was tasted after having just been uncorked. In the second round, one of the wines was placed on the enhancer for 12 minutes. In the third round the enhanced wine was returned to the enhancer for a full hour.

Each taster was asked to separately rate the components of the wine (fruit, acidity, tannin, linger and overall impression) on a scale from 1 - 10 using whole numbers (no fractions).

The enhanced wine did not produce significant results. While there were changes, they were no greater or less than the other two wines.

The hour long exposure to the enhancer was designed to look for less subtle changes. Both common sense, and conversations with the creator of the Catania Wine Enhancer suggested that this amount of exposure would be "too long" and therefore quite noticeable.

Again, there were not significant results. Even an hour of "enhancing" did not seem to change the wine to any degree greater than the wines that were not exposed to the enhancer.

The literature for the enhancer warns to not taste the wine blind, and that "Blind tastings are a bit more complicated than most people understand." Instead, it outlines a procedure where a glass of un-enhanced wine is set aside while the rest of the bottle in enhanced, then the enhanced wine is tasted first. And while I used experience blind tasters in my first trial, in order to be fair (and forestall objections) I decided to taste exactly as the instructions state.

Well, sort of. In order to mitigate the placebo effect I conducted two tastings. In both tasting the participants were told about the enhancer, and what to expect. In the first tasting an enhanced wine was used, but in the second, the wine was a control (yes, I lied to the participants and told them the wine was enhanced). In both cases the wine that was said to be enhanced was considered much changed by the tasters.

In both cases I also had the panel re-taste, after mixing up the glasses, and had them pick out the enhanced wine. The results were predictably mixed, with the enhanced (both actual and assumed) wine not showing better than chance would suggest.

So what does all this really mean? Did the Catania Wine Enhancer work for me? In my own tests I did not taste a difference. In the clinical trial (of which my own results were not included) there was no discernible change. In the casual tastings the wine that was said to be improved was found to be so, even when it was not. This tends to indicate that the power of suggestion was more effective than the actual enhancer.

Robert Catania, the creator of the Catania Wine Enhancer is an honest, well meaning guy. He has created a device that he feels greatly improves (much less changes) wine. He has many testimonials (including one from the Wine Spectator) that agree with him. In my tests I found no evidence to support change, much less improvement in the wine.

Perhaps my methodology is flawed (which is why it is included and offered up for peer review). Perhaps my ability to taste the differences is simply not acute enough (I didn't dwell on my own notes, and they are not included in the data, but I never noticed any change in the wines). Or maybe, just maybe, the Catania Wine Enhancer is nothing more than a pretty coaster.