The Inside Story from Italian Wine Merchants

The Sommelier Apocalypse

Posted on | January 26, 2010 | Written by Tara Carille | No Comments

How old is too old? And how young is too young? One question that stumps the savviest wine consumer and scholars alike is how to determine the longevity of a wine. It seems nearly impossible for any single person; nevertheless, wine drinkers want to be able to peruse a restaurant’s wine list or the shelves of a retail shop and know that the wine they are about to purchase is at the peak drinking phase of its life span. Sure, most may suggest simply pulling aside the resident wine expert and asking him or her, but what if there isn’t one available?

Let’s take a moment to imagine a sommelier apocalypse. You, the consumer, have to choose from all those pages of wines by the bottle and all those glittering shelves in wine stores all on your own. What are some of the approaches you should consider when determining the readiness of a bottle of wine?

A general rule of thumb is that price can determine a wine’s age worthiness—the less expensive, the shorter lifeline, and vice versa. But to every rule, there is an exception, and perhaps this is what confuses wine experts, collectors and casual consumers the most. To shed some light on these venerable questions, I turned to Christy Canterbury, IWM’s Director of Wine Acquisitions, to provide some personal insight.

Christy believes that many wines these days are released way too young, and she emphasizes that any quality-driven wine from $25 can generally use a few years of bottle age if properly stored, with most wines under $25 usually drinking within 1-3 years of vintage. While these wines may even hold longer, Christy suggests that they’re unlikely to develop any further benefits from sitting in a cellar. In contrast to these more value-conscious quaffers, Christy argues that wines in a more expensive price range abide by the rule that the more expensive the bottle, the longer it should sit—however, she stresses, it must have proper balance of fruit, oak, acid, tannin and alcohol to do so with benefits. ”It’s important to remember that a wine you love may age for ten years, but you may not enjoy its developed profile as much as you liked it young, even if it’s a mind-altering vino to others,” she concludes.

Expanding beyond pricing as a point of reference, Christy provides some criteria on determining the general age worthiness of reds, whites and sparklers. Most of us know that reds age longer than whites and sparklers (this last wine, Christy notes, “depends on the disgorgement date, of course”). Reds have the tannin structure that lengthens their aging. Whites are a riskier business if you’re interested in laying them down, generally because they lack the tannins that make reds so ageable. Some whites are considerably more stable for the long-term, and this stability depends on their level of tartaric acid, which drinkers often recognize as tartness on the palate. Christy also recognizes that many dessert and fortified wines can beat out even some age worthy reds. “Stickies (an Australian fortified wine) with great acidity can live almost forever!” she exclaims and adds that “fortified wines can be very long lived, with the life span of Madeira arching over centuries…then again, Fino sherry should be drunk within 6-12 months of bottling whenever possible.”

Now that you’ve received a few rules of thumb to help determine your wine’s age-worthiness, we can breathe a sigh of relief and imagine the apocalypse ends, the skies clear, normalcy returns. Sommeliers once more roam the earth. There’s no question that when you’re worrying about the drinkability of a wine over time, the best thing to do is to look it up or ask an expert. Christy cautions, “Look to top critics for advice because the web has volumes of opinions that are not expert.” Fortunately, you’ve got your experts on tap right here at Inside IWM. View Christy’s posts, and reach out to your favorite IWM’er—you can even email, Facebook, or use Twitter to direct message us. There’s no need to fear the apocalypse with IWM on your virtual side.

Category: Italian Wine Merchants
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