Tick tock, is time passing too slowly, or too fast?
As I sit here, counting the months until I can finally get my hands on Apple's new iPhone another form of anticipation comes to mind. Waiting for wine to be ready to drink.
Ready to drink - a term that I put just slightly more credence in than "goes with this food." Drink what you like, with what you like, and when you like. This is an important axiom, but just as some food pairings work better with my taste than others, so too do some wines reward aging better than others.
It is a common misconception that all wines improve with age. To age for a long time, 20 years or more, is actually very rare. These wines are never inexpensive (with the exception of Vintage Port) and most are very well known names. Not all expensive, or well known wines age gracefully (and some should be ashamed of themselves for that).
It takes a lot of tannin, acidity and fruit to age. When the components are all there, the wine softens, gains complexity and develops aromas over time. A well aged wine at its peak is a wonder to behold.
What about most other wines? Many will "keep" for a few years, meaning mostly that they will not change too quickly. A wine that has seen too much time tends to have turned brown, and lost all or most of its flavor and aroma.
Acidity is a key to keeping, if not actually aging. A tart wine will keep longer than a thin one. This is doubly true for white wines, as they tend to have little to no tannin.
Tannin too acts as a preservative, and it is the most noticeably changed component of an aged wine. Even the roughest wine will become soft with time.
So, how do you know when your wine is "Ready to Drink"? It depends on the wine.
Most moderately priced wines (under $15) will not really get any better with time, although a few months to rest up from traveling and or recently being bottled, can really help. For me these are my everyday drinking wines, and rather than take up precious room in my (plug in Eurocave) cellar, they sit in my living room "ready rack."
Zinfandel, modest Merlots, Syrahs and Petite Sirahs all head for the ready rack. Most Cabernet Sauvignon based wines, better Merlots, Pinot Noirs and Syrahs, go into the cellar. Mostly for less than 5 years. Not because there aren't examples that age longer than that, but because my taste and pocketbook tend towards a more modest style.
So how can you tell when your wine has aged enough? The easy answer is that you can't. Fortunately, there is hope, and you will enjoy this exercise. Always buy more than one bottle of wine you intend to age, so you can open a few over the years to see how it is doing.
While this involves the joy of consuming your wines, it also means you have one less bottle to age. There can be a great deal of consternation over drinking up all your wines too young, but remember this: It is far better to drink them too young, than too old.
There is another bright side of tasting a bottle now and then to see how it is doing. You get to learn for yourself how wine changes as it ages. If you don't remember every wine you ever tasted, as I seem to, you may want to take, and refer back to notes of the progress.
Don't forget that some white wines age as well. In fact on my list of oldest wines I have tasted, almost all of the best where white. To be fair most were dessert wines (Ch. d'Yquem in particular) but at least a few were dry whites.
The dry whites that age the best follow the same rule as the reds. They tend to be expensive, they tend to have some tannin (from oak aging), and they had a lot of acidity and fruit in their youth. White Burgundies are the best known of this class.
If you have a cellar, root around in it and see if you have a bottle or two that is getting long in the tooth. It may be time to drink them up, but only tasting will tell for sure.
P.S. I want to thank those of you that have written to tell me about the American Wine Blogs Awards. I appreciate the support, and offers to be nominated, but it seems I am not prolific enough to qualify. It takes 52 posts in 2006, and as any of my regular readers know, I am a tad shy of that. Of course if you insist on nominating and or voting for me anyway, I won't stop you.
P.P.S. If you do have a favorite wine blog, other than mine, share it with us!
Ready to drink - a term that I put just slightly more credence in than "goes with this food." Drink what you like, with what you like, and when you like. This is an important axiom, but just as some food pairings work better with my taste than others, so too do some wines reward aging better than others.
It is a common misconception that all wines improve with age. To age for a long time, 20 years or more, is actually very rare. These wines are never inexpensive (with the exception of Vintage Port) and most are very well known names. Not all expensive, or well known wines age gracefully (and some should be ashamed of themselves for that).
It takes a lot of tannin, acidity and fruit to age. When the components are all there, the wine softens, gains complexity and develops aromas over time. A well aged wine at its peak is a wonder to behold.
What about most other wines? Many will "keep" for a few years, meaning mostly that they will not change too quickly. A wine that has seen too much time tends to have turned brown, and lost all or most of its flavor and aroma.
Acidity is a key to keeping, if not actually aging. A tart wine will keep longer than a thin one. This is doubly true for white wines, as they tend to have little to no tannin.
Tannin too acts as a preservative, and it is the most noticeably changed component of an aged wine. Even the roughest wine will become soft with time.
So, how do you know when your wine is "Ready to Drink"? It depends on the wine.
Most moderately priced wines (under $15) will not really get any better with time, although a few months to rest up from traveling and or recently being bottled, can really help. For me these are my everyday drinking wines, and rather than take up precious room in my (plug in Eurocave) cellar, they sit in my living room "ready rack."
Zinfandel, modest Merlots, Syrahs and Petite Sirahs all head for the ready rack. Most Cabernet Sauvignon based wines, better Merlots, Pinot Noirs and Syrahs, go into the cellar. Mostly for less than 5 years. Not because there aren't examples that age longer than that, but because my taste and pocketbook tend towards a more modest style.
So how can you tell when your wine has aged enough? The easy answer is that you can't. Fortunately, there is hope, and you will enjoy this exercise. Always buy more than one bottle of wine you intend to age, so you can open a few over the years to see how it is doing.
While this involves the joy of consuming your wines, it also means you have one less bottle to age. There can be a great deal of consternation over drinking up all your wines too young, but remember this: It is far better to drink them too young, than too old.
There is another bright side of tasting a bottle now and then to see how it is doing. You get to learn for yourself how wine changes as it ages. If you don't remember every wine you ever tasted, as I seem to, you may want to take, and refer back to notes of the progress.
Don't forget that some white wines age as well. In fact on my list of oldest wines I have tasted, almost all of the best where white. To be fair most were dessert wines (Ch. d'Yquem in particular) but at least a few were dry whites.
The dry whites that age the best follow the same rule as the reds. They tend to be expensive, they tend to have some tannin (from oak aging), and they had a lot of acidity and fruit in their youth. White Burgundies are the best known of this class.
If you have a cellar, root around in it and see if you have a bottle or two that is getting long in the tooth. It may be time to drink them up, but only tasting will tell for sure.
P.S. I want to thank those of you that have written to tell me about the American Wine Blogs Awards. I appreciate the support, and offers to be nominated, but it seems I am not prolific enough to qualify. It takes 52 posts in 2006, and as any of my regular readers know, I am a tad shy of that. Of course if you insist on nominating and or voting for me anyway, I won't stop you.
P.P.S. If you do have a favorite wine blog, other than mine, share it with us!
2 Comments:
Dr. Reiss,
I read your blog quite often,and enjoy it. Thanks for taking the time to write it. I even have a link posted to it on my blog, for friends to enjoy.
http://drinkthevine.blogspot.com/
Thanks, and keep it coming.
hi.
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