Sip Quips

With talk of wine, comes talk of wine cellars, talk of aging wine, and for many, the anxiety of determining what will cause a wine to age well. There are numerous factors that cause some wines to age better than others, and even experts with perfect wine storage guess wrong occasionally (and yes, I did say guess).

First off, do you enjoy older wines? Not everyone does, and there is absolutely nothing wrong with you if you do not like aged wines, but it is a good thing to know before you start buying cases of wines to lay down for decades. Here are a few questions to help you figure out if you enjoy older or younger wines better.

In red wine I prefer

a) Fresh, bright fruit flavors
b) Earthy flavors

The wines I like best are often described as 

a) Jammy
b) Supple

My friends describe me as

a) The life of the party, or larger than life
b) Reserved and thoughtful

I enjoy wines that are 

a) Tannic and/or slightly astringent
b) Soft

If you answered with mostly a’s chances are you prefer your wines young and fruity, so stop reading this silly article, go throw a steak on the grill, pop a bottle of Zin, and drink your red wines within two to four years of vintage date. If you answered with mostly b’s, think about shopping for older bottles, finding a good storage space in your house, and laying some bottles down now for the future. On average, bottles in your cellar should be consumed between 7-10 years from vintage date.

So, you’ve decided that you need to start building up a wine cellar, it’s time to go shopping right? Nope, not yet. Before you start spending any amount of money on wines that you want to lay down for any number of years you need to think about where and how you are going to store them. The most important factor of storing wine is temperature.  You’ll want to find a spot that is fairly consistent in temperature, and ideally between 55-70° F. Good options – subterranean basements or crawl spaces, interior closets, or small, self-contained wine fridges (you can find models that hold as few as 8 bottles, or as many as 1500). Bad options – on top of your refrigerator, in your laundry room, next to your water heater. The longer you plan on storing wine in this location, the more consistent you want the temperature to be.  

Two other enemies of wine storage humidity and light. You want the humidity to stay fairly consistent, and between 55-85% – too dry and your corks will dry out, too moist and they will mold. Also remember – dark cellars are happy cellars. Light exposure will eventually cook your wines, and you’ll end up with overly carmely, flat wines that are more reminiscent of bourbon than a lovely, aged, red wine.

Now that you’ve found a cool, dark space to store your wines, let’s look at getting that cellar stocked. So, what do you look for in a bottle for your cellar. For me, I think about it in terms of wines that aren’t quite done yet. These wines have some characteristic that is at present time a little green.  

Big, brassy, bold reds you want good fruit flavors, but some tannins to really dry out your mouth.

Soft, supple reds look for nice fresh fruits and floral characteristics, but some mouth-puckering acidity.

Pink wine – don’t cellar at all, open it before the end of summer.

White wine – well, that gets complicated; it’s probably best to start with some reds and then move into whites a bit later.

Bubbles – don’t hold on to bubbly for longer than two years, otherwise you get sparkling wine that’s not so sparkly, and that’s never good!

Now that you have a few bottles in your cellar, go find some yummy, everyday drinking wine to tide you over until the bottles in your cellar are ready to drink.

With summer right around the corner it’s time to contemplate room temperature for your red wines.  As the mercury rises outside, the temp in your house and of your red wines can soar too.  If you don’t want to squirrel your red wines away for the summer, and also don’t want to subject yourself to the evils of 70+ degree wine, you can either shell out big bucks for a wine fridge, which you probably don’t have room for anyway, or you can take advantage of the fridge you already have in your kitchen.

Now, mind you, I’m not saying to throw out your wine rack and store everything in the fridge. First off – where would your milk and juice go, and secondly, your reds would be too cold. The average fridge temp is between 32-40° F, which is a little brisk for red wines, but an hour or two in the old chill chest will bring the temp down into a reasonable range for reds. I find an inverse proportion between weight of a red and the temperature I prefer to drink it – a big weighty Cabernet or Bordeaux is best served a bit warmer that a lighter Pinot or Cru Beaujolais, which can take more of a chill.

The fridge is also the perfect spot to keep that unfinished bottle, should you ever find yourself with unfinished wines. Yes, even the reds. Storing open bottles in the fridge will slow the process of oxidation and keep your wines fresher longer. Just because you store it in the fridge, doesn’t mean that you have to drink it straight from the fridge. Pour yourself a glass of red from the fridge while you are cooking dinner, and by the time you are ready to eat it will have warmed up a tad, and be just the perfect temp. So, next 90° day, pop your Pinot in the fridge before you toss the burgers on the grill, and your lightly chilled wine will not only be delicious, but nice and refreshing too.

The server approaches your table, bottle in hand, and you freeze. You know that you and your server are about to begin a ritualized dance – but you don’t know the choreography. Not to worry, I’m here to show you the steps. 

First, the server will present the bottle to you. Your job is to take a look at the label and make sure that it is the wine that you ordered. Occasionally a restaurant will have two labels both from the same producer, so this is a chance for both you and your server to verify that the bottle she is holding is the bottle you want.

Next the server will open the bottle and offer you the cork. There is little more pretentious than smelling the cork. You want to know what it’s going to smell like? Cork. There is a lot that you can tell from the cork, but by looking at it, not smelling it.

When looking at the cork check to verify that the name and vintage on the cork (if there is a name and/or vintage) matches the bottle. If it doesn’t the bottle was likely recorked, or mislabeled – either way it is a problem and should be sent back. You also want to make sure that the cork is free of visible defects – cracks, mold, wine stains running the length of the cork. These are not guarantees that the wine within is bad, but they are definitely red flags. Make sure that you smell the wine carefully and thoughtfully if you see any of these warning signs.

Now the server will pour a small taste of wine in your glass. You swirl, sniff and taste the wine. You are checking to be sure that the wine has not spoiled, not whether or not you like it. If the wine is good it will smell like, well….wine. If it smells like vinegar, nail polish remover, onions, wet cardboard or otherwise ‘off’ tell the waiter. In the case of a spoiled bottle the waiter will bring another bottle of the same wine and you will start the dance all over again.

In the vast majority of bottles the wine will be just fine, and you should indicate this to the server. With a simple nod from you the server will pour the wine, set the remainder of the bottle on the table, and you have made it to the end of the dance without a stumble. Now it’s time to sit back and enjoy dinner.