Cellaring Without a
Cellar
Courtesy of
30 Second Wine Advisor
By
Robin GarrOne of the most frustrating things about wine
for the average consumer is the frequently repeated counsel, "Don't
try to age this wine if you don't have a proper cellar."
On the one hand, it's estimated that 95 percent of all the
world's wine is ready to drink when you buy it, won't improve with
further aging, and
- in many cases - really should be drunk up within a few months to a
year or two after purchase, while it's still young and fresh.
On the other hand, that remaining 5 percent includes much of the
world's best wine; and it doesn't take more than a few samples of a
well- cellared, fully mature wine of quality to turn a casual wine
enthusiast into a passionate collector.
But the process of excavating and finishing a naturally cool
underground storage space or investing in a free-standing,
climate-controlled wine- storage unit can be an expensive
proposition. Wine in storage is best kept close to 55F (13C), which
just happens to be the natural temperature of underground caves. Run
the numbers for a walk-in or free- standing cellar unit capable of
maintaining this constant temperature (with reasonable humidity) and
you'll find yourself looking at a four- figure investment or more, a
figure that will pay for a lot of wine.
Other than relying on the kindness of strangers or friends, or
purchasing mature wines at retail or auction (in which case you're
essentially paying someone else a premium for cellaring wine for
you), what's an everyday wine lover to do?
There's no denying that wines kept at warmer-than-ideal
temperatures age more quickly than well-cellared wines, and not as
well. But wine isn't quite as fragile as some of the authorities
suggest, and in my experience, it's entirely possible to keep
ageworthy wines under imperfect conditions for several years and get
at least a taste of what cellaring is all about.
Want to try it? Here are a few simple tips:
* DON'T START WITH FRAGILE WINE. If it's not fresh now, it
has no place to go but downhill. Choose sturdy, robust and tannic
reds; avoid starting with delicate whites or rosés or light and
fruity reds. If you try a young Cabernet, Rhone-style red or Italian
red, though, and discover interesting, balanced fruit and acid
that's cloaked by astringent tannins and tart acidity, you may have
a good candidate for an aging experiment.
* DON'T TRY THIS WITH PRICEY LUXURY LABELS. Unless you're
a serious gambler, a $100 risk in a classed Bordeaux or Grand Cru
Burgundy may be more than you want to take on.
* TREAT YOUR TREASURE WITH CARE. Set up a sturdy wine rack
in a quiet part of the house, ideally where it's cool and dark.
Avoid upstairs rooms if they heat up on summer afternoons; consider
the basement if it's cooler than the rest of the house. Avoid a spot
that's exposed to heating registers or direct sunlight. Anywhere in
the kitchen is almost certainly a bad idea. It's OK to pick up a
bottle on occasion to admire the label, but don't fool with your
wines unnecessarily. And no, you never need to turn or rotate the
bottles on the wine rack ... that's a myth.
* WATCH THEIR PROGRESS. Check every now and then to make
sure wine isn't seeping out around the corks and that the level of
wine in the bottles remains full. Treat yourself to one of your
wines every year or so to see how they're coming along. Brownish
color and a walnutty, Sherrylike scent of oxidation in your wine are
sure signs that they're headed over the hill if not there already;
but an older wine that adds richness and complexity and interesting
aromas of coffee, toast, leather and earth to still-vibrant "sweet"
fruit can be a thing of real beauty.
* DON'T WAIT TOO LONG. I've occasionally been surprised by
a bottle kept 10 years at room temperature, but you can't count on
this. Three to five years is reasonable for sturdy reds kept in an
air-conditioned setting where the temperature rarely goes above the
middle 70s F (25C), but if it gets much warmer than that, you'll
have to curtail your expectations accordingly.
When it works, though, room-temperature cellaring can be
rewarding, paying off in good wine and a sense that you've beaten
the system. We enjoyed a simple red Rhone wine from Lirac the other
night, one that I had put away in 2001 after reporting on a similar
bottle that was pleasant but tannic enough to prompt me to write
"Needs time." Four years later, it's coming along fine, and there's
still room for it to grow. |
