BASICS: BUYING AND STORING WINE
January can be a good time to buy wine, sometimes at post-holiday price reductions. When it comes to buying wine, it’s helpful to find a wine seller who knows their offerings and makes an effort to learn what kind of wines you like, which makes it possible to offer you a bottle that you will truly enjoy. As your knowledge and experience grow, you will find it easier to make good selections on your own. But even then, a knowledgeable wine professional can be of great help as new wines become available and vintages change.
I recommend that you do at least a little collecting of the wines you like. It’s nice to have a few bottles on hand when unexpected needs arise, and buying more than one bottle of an age-worthy wine allows you to learn how wine develops as it matures. Your wine collection can be housed in a true cellar, a manufactured cooler, or a cool closet. Hopefully, it’s not in a wine rack above the stove. Areas that are warm or experience great variations in temperature are barely acceptable for storing wines that are going to be consumed quickly. Longer exposure risks a loss of quality because temperature changes and heat are most unkind to vino. Wines age best in a dark, thermally stable environment at a temperature range of 56 to 62 degrees Fahrenheit.
“Your collecti on can be housed in a
true cellar, a manufactured cooler or a cool closet
– not in a rack above the stove…”
Vintage Porto and Madeira can sometimes be aged for fifty years or more, but not all wines can benefit from, or even tolerate, long aging. Beaujolais Nouveau is available on the third Thursday in November and should be consumed no later than Easter the following year. Most wines fall between these two extremes. Light bodied white, rosé and red wines are usually tastiest when consumed young. Full-bodied whites such as Chardonnays, semi-sweet German Rieslings and medium bodied reds can improve and gain complexity with a few years of cellar time. Full bodied, structured reds including Cabernet Sauvignon, Italian Borolo or French Bordeaux and dessert wines such as Sauternes or sweet Rieslings can develop for many years, even decades.
If you are not sure how long to hold those bottles you’ve been saving, seek help. There are many resources available including magazines and books, your wine seller and the Internet.
It is important to note that when you see a recommendation like “best from 2008 —2014” it’s assumed that the wine has been stored at a stable 58 degrees. Wine stored at fourteen degrees higher (72º) has one-half the life span. Instead of being good until 2014, you had better drink it by 2011 to be safe. It’s better to drink the wine a bit young, rather than have it pass the top of its curve and be on the downhill side of life. It’s heartbreaking to open that special bottle you have been lovingly saving to find the flavors have either “gone away” or turned way nasty because you waited too long.
So let’s raise a glass to buying, collecting and of course drinking good wine. Enjoy the journey of discovery and the fruits of your efforts!
