Notes & queries

Each month our experts answer readers’ wine queries and share their knowledge Email: editor@decanter.com. Post: The Editor, Decanter, 161 Marsh Wall, London, E14 9AP, UK

Time up for 2014?

Last May, I opened a bottle of Château Fontbonne, Cuvée Marie Bordeaux Supérieur 2014. It was rich, luscious and very much enjoyed. Two bottles of the same opened this January were harsh and astringent – after a few days in a decanter it became drinkable, but still quite tough. Is this an example of a red ‘closing up’? I had a similar experience with a Haut-Médoc 2014.

Andrew Walker, Didcot

Jane Anson replies: In general, the bigger and more long-living the vintage, the more it is likely to close up. A wine will normally follow a path of a few years of being open and fruitfocused, then the closed-up period will last between two to ten years, and then open up to a plateau that it may well stay on for decades.

We recently retasted the 2015 Bordeaux vintage, and the ‘best’ wines (those with the biggest future, which normally means classified estates from Pauillac, St-Emilion, Margaux and so on) were very difficult to taste right now.

For a 2014 Bordeaux Supérieur (or similar) at six years old, I would think the problem more likely to have been bottle variation, and that your experience was just unlucky in this instance. This is because 2014 is a good vintage for Bordeaux but not exceptional in the way that 2015 or 2016 were, and therefore such wines should be ready to drink now.

Perfect temperatures

Is there any formula to the rate at which a bottle warms or cools? It would be handy to know how long a bottle of red needs to spend out of a 12°C unit to be at ideal serving temperature; and on the flip side, how long a bottle should spend in a fridge in order to take three or four degrees off.

Jonathan Quaintrell-Evans, by email Ronan Sayburn MS responds: Wine temperature is a small but very important detail and it can enhance or spoil the wine drinking experience if you get it wrong. As modern central heating can keep room temperatures above 20°C and domestic fridges are 5°C or below – too warm for reds and too cold for whites – any specific scientific formula would have many variables that may include thickness of glass, air movement and alcohol levels.

In addition, serving temperatures will also be determined by wine styles too; for example Pinot Noir should be served at a cooler temperature than Shiraz. As a rule of thumb, put room-temperature white wines (at 20°C) into a fridge (at 5°C) for 45 minutes or a freezer (at -15°C) for 20 minutes before serving at 8°C. Put room-temperature reds into a fridge for 20 minutes to cool to 15°C.

Dried grapes, sweet wine?

When fermenting grapes that have been dried appassimento style, does the winemaker stop the fermentation before all sugars are gone for a sweet wine or off-dry wine, or do they allow fermentation to complete, resulting in a dry wine with little or no residual sugar?

Bob Becker, California

Michael Garner replies: Appassimento is a term most frequently used in the western part of the Veneto region, and in particular the overlapping Soave and Valpolicella denominations close to the city of Verona. The word derives from the verb appassire (‘to wither’). It refers to the drying of the grapes prior to the production of either amarone or recioto wines. Selected bunches are picked just prior to the main harvest (to retain good levels of acidity) and then dried, usually in humidity-controlled conditions, until towards the end of the year at least, before pressing. Those destined for the sweet wine recioto are sometimes dried through until the Spring.

To respond to your question directly, the answer is, of course, both! It depends on which style the winemaker is producing. If it’s recioto (don’t forget, this is the original wine

of the area, with a history dating back to pre-Roman times) then he/she will stop the fermentation while there is still a high proportion of sugars unfermented.

Traditionally this was done using a combination of racking (separating the liquid from the solids) and exposure to cold temperatures until the active yeasts and their nutrients had been largely eliminated. Nowadays, a final filtration or centrifuging the wine gives a more stable product.

Amarone, surprisingly, has only been produced on a regular, commercial basis since about the time of World War II. It’s made from the same semi-dried grapes, but fermented to near-dryness. Alcohol level is the critical feature with amarone: many yeasts stop working once alcohol levels reach about 15%, so the wines will often retain some residual sugar. Although known as a dry wine, amarone can contain up to about 17g/L of sugar, depending on its alcohol content.