GOLDEN AGE
How to tell if a dusty bottle of wine on your basement rack is still good
It was a special bottle for a special occasion. The wine was vintage 2000. A wine that old is always a risky pick, especially considering my less-than-ideal cellar conditions. And this wasn’t an ageworthy red Bordeaux or a sturdy cabernet. It was a white, a California Chardonnay, but one with a pedigree: Chateau Montelena, the Napa Valley chard that won the famous Paris Tasting in 1976. I needn’t have worried. The Montelena was gorgeous. Its colour was vibrant, a pale straw yellow that barely showed any age. It smelled of ginger and baked apples, and tasted of ripe pears, toasted hazelnuts and shaved coconut. Any rough edges from youth had melded seamlessly into a perfect blend of fruit and oak, achieving a maturity that still showed great potential.
The moral of the story: Don’t give up on those old bottles of wine. Here’s something I hear several times a year: An acquaintance has a special bottle of sentimental value. Years later, she’s reluctant to open it; no occasion seems special enough.
These anecdotes end with the same question: “Is it still any good?” Thatdepends,Isay,andaskto see a photo of the bottle. The first and most important clues, are the producer, region and vintage. I also look for the ullage, the space between the cork and the wine. If it’s large (more than the standard quarter inch/.635 cm or so), the wine has probably oxidized, evaporated or seeped out through the cork. I also look for signs of leakage, such as drips on the foil capsule or label. These suggest the wine was stored improperly and exposed to heat. If none of those negative indicators are visible, the wine may still be over the hill. There’s only one way to find out. Wine collectors take great pleasure in deferred gratification watching our wines age for years before pronouncing them ready to drink. Often we wait too long. But our cellars are status symbols, the bottles arrayed on their sides, so the wine touches the cork, keeping it from drying out and shrinking. Temperature is also important: Wine ages best at 55 (13 C) to 68 F (20 C), so we invest in expensive wine vaults or chillers. Fifteen years ago, when a house fire gave me the opportunity to renovate my basement, I decided to construct an enclosed wine cellar in one corner.
I designed it to accommodate the smallest, least-expensive cooling unit. After about six months, the cooling unit died and leaked water all over the floor. Several months later, the replacement unit died, too. By this time, my collection had already outgrown the cellar’s capacity and spilled into the basement, so I decided to leave the door open and turn the thermostat down as low as we could stand it. It may not be the “ideal temperature,” but the only time I really worry about heat spikes and fluctuations is shoulder season, when we open the windows and enjoy fresh air.
Which is to say, don’t sweat the details about storing your wine. If you maintain a few cases of inventory, a wine refrigerator is ideal, but unless you are building a collection as an investment, you don’t need expensive wine racks or temperature controls. Just keep your wine in the coolest part of your house.
And if you are worried that special bottle you’ve been reluctant to open may have turned to vinegar, what are you waiting for? Gather some friends, share the story and drink the wine. But have a backup wine handy, just in case.