Whining about Wine, or Helpful Wine Tips

Those of you who read this blog may notice that I am a bit of a wine freak.  I love the stuff.  The history, the naturalness, the reflection of time and place and the social aspects are all enticing aspects of the hobby.  One does not have to be a wine snob to increase your pleasure and the quality of the wines you drink.  Some simple knowledge helps.  Here are some tips on properly storing wine and how to best drink it.  To spend any significant money on a bottle (or bottles) and not do these things, is throwing money out the window.  A couple of these sentences may have been lifted from a combination of some wine books I once wrote these notes from, when I find them I will add the source where/if it was used.

Storing Wine

Most wine in supermarkets is produced to drink best young and is not meant for much aging.  However, most high quality and collectible wines get better with age (especially French and Italian).    If you want something that will age, be prepared to store it.  Even if just holding on to a bottle for a few weeks, improper storage will ruin the wine (incrementally at first, completely over time).

Nothing will ruin the wine (even if you do not realize it) faster than:

1)      Heat – wine should never be stored for more than a handful of days in anything about 79 or so.  It should never be in your trunk for even 5 minutes.  One blast of heat, or too much time at 80, 90 or 100 degrees will zap the fruit right from the wine.  You’ll hear such wine referred to as “cooked”.

2)      Light – bright light (ultraviolet) effects the chemical composition of wine negatively.  This is why most wine comes in dark bottles and most cellars come with tinted glass.  Besides the heat, keeping a wine stored on your countertop will ruin ultimately even because of light.

3)      The cork drying out – store wine on its side at all times so the cork stays wet.  When the cork dries out, it shrinks and oxygen can enter the bottle.  This will ruin the wine.

4. Ideally wine should be stored somewhere around 55-59 degrees with 50-70% humidity.  If you do not have a cellar or wine refrigerator, it is usually best to not collect wine, just buy and drink in the same week or so.  I would put a wine in a refrigerator before leaving it out, but the excessive cold also impacts the wine and is not good to do long term.  It is hard to emphasize how much these things impact wine and how most people have no idea how good wine can be because these simple things are not kept in mind.  By the way, obviously never buy wine somewhere that does not have the wine stored at the proper temperature.

Drinking Wine

1)      Wine served at temperatures other than what is normal for that varietal, will simply not be as good as wine at the right temperature.  In Arizona, almost everyone serves red wines too warm and white wines too cold.  This makes the reds tannic, hot (with alcohol) and less fruity.  And it zaps the whites of any flavor.  As a general rule, serve the reds around 60 degrees and the whites in the mid-50’s.  Serve champagne in the upper 40’s.  Better to bring out wine too cold as it will warm up, then to bring out too warm.  A 10 second search on the internet will give you the optimum serving temperature for any specific varietal.

2)      Wine glasses should never be washed with dish soap, just use warm to hot water.  Soap leaves a residue (even if just at the chemical level) that absolutely impacts the nose and taste of wine.  It really does – wine will always taste better in a glass that does not have such residue.

3)      Wine glass size and shape also makes a difference.  Most should ‘bowl’ out at the bottom to give the wine air to breathe, but then taper up towards the top so the bouquet of the wine does not easily escape anywhere except to your nose! There are actually different shaped wine glasses designed specifically t o highlight the characteristics of each varietal, but any standard wine glass is good as long as it is as described above, and somewhere between 12-22 ounces or so.   The wine glass should also have a thin lip, thick glasses simply do not work as well and seem to change the texture of the wine.  And though they may be pretty, clear wine glasses are best as color – the eyes if you will – is also important in evaluating wine.

4)      Many people like to aerate or decant red wines some number of hours prior to serving.  For young reds that ideally would have had more age, this can help soften the wine’s tannins, making it more enjoyable.  The air “fakes” the wine into a bit more of an aged taste (though never as good as actually aging).  Be careful though, do so too long and the air will ruin the wine.

5)      If you are drinking to really contemplate the wine, it is best to drink while you are somewhat hungry.  Having just shocked your taste buds with oodles of food or gum minutes prior to tasting, and the wine will not taste good.

6)      Most wines are more flexible with more foods than many think (no firm rules like there was years ago).  However, there are combinations that are particularly bad for wines.  If you are drinking a delicate wine, having a heavy dish will squash the wine.  A heavy wine will squash a light dish.  A spicy dish needs something with lots  of acid to counterbalance the spice (like a Gewürztraminer or Riesling).   Fatty foods (like a steak) are perfect for tannic wines (like Cabernet) as the tannin and fat “melt” each other out.  Color is not so important. Match the weight of the food and wine, and the texture.  A good rule of thumb…if the wine is produced in the same region as where the food is from, it probably goes together.

In a future post, I will give some hints of selecting wines.