Ask Decanter
Each month our experts answer your burning wine questions. Email your questions to editor@decanter.com
AGEING: OLD V NEW WORLD
I read the articles on Bordeaux 2019 and South American challenger blends (April issue) with interest, but was left with a burning question. The drinking windows for the South American wines were generally no more than 10 years or so, whereas many of the 2019 clarets had drinking windows of 20+ years. Even sub-£50 Bordeaux wines were expected to outlast their South American counterparts at more than double the price. Is it something intrinsic in the wine styles that gives Bordeaux a greater capacity to age? Or is there still a prejudice that New World wines aren’t built for the long haul?
Daniel Carter-Clout, London
Amanda Barnes, author of The South America Wine Guide, replies: Great question. It’s a combination of prejudice, habit and modesty (producers often undervalue their own wines). There’s not much of a habit of holding South American wines, perhaps because they are so approachable in their youth, but also wineries need to make revenue sooner rather than later. And there’s sadly still a prejudice that they don’t age as well, though I believe that’s unfounded.
On a recent tasting of the 1999 vintage of Cheval des Andes – one of Argentina’s first great Bordeauxinspired blends – the wine showed evolution but was delicious, with fresh acidity, a fine spine of tannin and vibrant plum and cedar notes. I didn’t hesitate to recommend a drinking window of 20+ years for Cheval’s 2018. The same can be said for many of South America’s high-end reds, but also the whites – I’ve tasted older vintages of Semillon, Chardonnay and even Sauvignon Blanc that have aged like a dream. Without doubt South America has wines that can stand the test of time – though you might have to cellar them for now.
CHAMPAGNE SOLERA
James Phillips, West Sussex
Giles Fallowfield, Decanter
contributor on Champagne, replies: Most Champagne producers hold large stocks of reserve wine that are used when harvests are lacking in some element, or when yields are reduced. Reserve wine has become increasingly important in blending non-vintage wines, both in terms of bolstering volume when necessary, but also in raising quality and consistency. How an estate chooses to keep its reserve wines varies, but an increasing number of producers have chosen to create a ‘perpetual reserve’, which operates in a similar way to a ‘solera’ in Sherry.
As its name suggests, the perpetual reserve in Champagne (sometimes referred to as a solera) is built over time by adding wine from each harvest to a chosen storage vessel, be it steel or concrete tank or, alternatively, oak barrel or foudre. Typically, this perpetual reserve is set aside, untapped, for some years to develop, so that by the time it is first used to supply some or all of the reserve wine in a non-vintage blend, it may contain wines from five or as many as 15 different consecutive harvests. Producers including Bruno Paillard, Henri Giraud and Philipponnat have created different perpetual reserves for each of their ‘multi-vintage’ blends, adding a percentage of material from the perpetual reserve (a third, or sometimes more) to the blend created from the harvest.
The perpetual reserve is refreshed each year with wine from the new harvest. Some producers also add a portion of their latest non-vintage wine, to add further complexity. In any case, over time the perpetual reserve gradually becomes a blend of diminishing amounts of more and more harvests.