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xrose

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[交流] Do wines really get better with age?

Ever wondered if those dusty old bottles of wine in your parents' basement have aged to a rustic perfection? After resting on their sides for 20 or 30 years, are they worth anything? (The wines, not your parents.)

Unless your parents are serious wine buffs, the answers are: "no," and "what do you get for glass recycling in your area?" Despite the conventional wisdom that older wine is better, only a very few wines improve with age.

If that doesn't deter you, here are some tips on how to choose a wine that will emerge from your cellar in a few years with a mature flavor while retaining a touch of youthful vigor. And even if you're not the aging type, I'll clue you in on how to store any bottle of wine after you open it.

Most bottles of wine are consumed the same day they're purchased, and wine producers support this trend by making barrel after barrel of wine that will never taste any better than the day you buy it.

The classic wine for the long haul is red Bordeaux and Burgundy, but barolos and barbarescos from Italy are cheaper at the high end of quality and have just as much aging potential. Another relatively inexpensive option is vintage port — but avoid "late-bottled vintage" wines (marked LBV), which are ready to drink now and won't benefit from aging. For an unorthodox and low-priced choice, consider Australian shiraz-cabernet blends for your cellar.

Not all wine with aging potential is red. "German riesling is extraordinarily well-suited to aging," says Andrea Robinson (formerly Andrea Immer), master sommelier and host of "Simply Wine" on the Fine Living network. "It gains surprising complexity and character with time." Plus, you needn't spend more than $15 or $20 per bottle to get started — look for a bottle marked "Spatlese" from a good recent vintage such as 2001 or 2002. It will transform noticeably in just two or three years. Other cellaring whites include sauternes and champagne.

Storage conditions are important — but not as important as you may think. There's a reason they call it a wine cellar: The typical basement is a fine place to store wine. "The key thing you're trying to avoid is extremes and changes, spikes of temperature," says Robinson. "That can change the pressure in the bottle and causes the product to expand and contract." Bottles must be stored on their sides to keep the cork moist. A dry cork will shrink and allow air into the bottle, and your wine will start to evaporate and taste like leftovers.

Buy a case, or more. Wine aging is as much about luck as scientific precision, which means you need to pull a bottle and taste the wine before you expect it to be ready. Luckily, despite the stereotype of wine snobs dumping before-its-time Margaux into the storm drain, wine drunk a little too soon will still be delicious, just a little more flat-tasting or tannic than it could be.

What to do with an opened bottle
But the most-asked question in wine storage has nothing to with aging.

Now that you've opened a bottle of wine — old or new — how long will it keep and how should you store it? As Robinson puts it, "You buy a bag of chips, you don't feel like you have to eat the whole thing in one sitting. Most people don't feel so confident buying and opening and not finishing wine."

Oxygen is wine's mortal enemy, and unfortunately (for wine, at least), air is full of oxygen. None of the mass-market wine-preservation products offers much advantage over recorking the bottle and putting it in the refrigerator. According to Robinson, the best keepers are wines with a strong acidic component — wines like Sancerre, Chianti, and riesling (which will last three to five days), and especially champagne and sparkling wine, as long as you close it with a "clamshell" champagne stopper, available at any wine shop. "It holds for sometimes weeks at a time, believe it or not."

For the ultimate in wine preservation, buy a box. More and more quality wines are available in three-liter "casks," which don't let air anywhere near the wine, and they'll stay fresh in the refrigerator for months after opening. As long as your guests don't see what you're doing behind the fridge door, you're golden.
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