One of the things I love about working with wine is its ‘mystery’.

Wine is even more mysterious to those who don’t grow it and make it, and as a result I get asked a lot of questions.

Here are three of the most frequently asked questions, and some answers…

1. What are ‘legs’?

I am a ‘leg man’. Of course, legs are the lower limbs of a biped such as a human being, or any of the paired limbs of an animal, that support and move the body! Duh!

Betty Grable, Marlene Dietrich, Angie Dickinson and Jamie Lee Curtis all had great legs that were insured for millions!

However wine “legs” are the streaks of liquid that slide down the inside of the glass after you have swirled your wine around in it.

Alcohol has a lower surface tension than water and evaporates faster. As the alcohol evaporates, water concentration increases causing the alcohol to pull together into a teardrop that then runs down the glass.

Legs are not generally considered a great way to gauge the quality of a wine, but they can indicate higher levels of alcohol.

2. How long can a wine last after opening?

Come on, is this really a problem for you?!

I have to say that this is not a problem in our house, because the empty wine bottle goes straight into the recycle bin the same evening!

For those of you who are a bit more disciplined about wine consumption, wine will begin to change as soon as it comes into contact with oxygen so if you don’t finish a bottle in one sitting be sure to replace the cork or screwcap. Storing wine in the fridge also seems to slow the oxidization process, but it is not so great for reds unless you warm them up again.

In some cases a wine can taste better the day after it was opened (especially young full bodied reds), while in others it can lose fruit structure and become a bit flat on the palate (almost all white wines, and all older wines).

As a general rule of thumb however, wine can continue to be drunk for several days after opening, but it is like biting into an apple - the longer you leave it lying around, the more it will deteriorate.

Here at the winery, we ‘blanket’ our opened bottles at the end of each day with argon, a heavy inert gas. It is not a practical option for home though.

I have seen research on the various vacuum pump thingies out there, and it seems they actually make the problem worse by ’sucking out’ a lot of the aromatics in the wine!

Of course the obvious answer is to consume the whole bottle, and keep winemakers in full employment!

3. How long will a certain wine last in my cellar before it needs to be drunk?

Got that special bottle of Wohnseidler 1973 or Cold Duck 1975 waiting for a special occasion? Read on…

This question about cellaring fascinates me because something like 90% of wine is consumed within 48 hours of purchase!!

It’s a tough question to answer. So many variables are involved, including the grape variety, wine style, quality of the vintage, quality of the producer (and their track record for making wines that go the distance) and the storage conditions the wine is subjected to by the purchaser. Good storage conditions will go a long way to prolonging the life of a wine.

If you want to get serious about keeping some of your wine long term, do your homework on the potential life of the wine beforehand – particularly if you want to purchase more than a couple of bottles.

I recommend buying say 4-6 bottle of the same wine if you intend to cellar it. Over the next few years, try a bottle and when you think it couldn’t possibly taste any better, drink the rest up over the next few months!

If in doubt, drink it sooner rather than later - there are too many ‘rest home cellars’ which are full of wine that has been kept too long and are past it.

It is way better to drink a wine too young than too old!

If you have a particular wine you would like some advice on, just email darryl@AscensionWine.co.nz – I am happy to help!

Happy imbibing,

Darryl

This entry was posted on Wednesday 14th October 2009 and is filed under Wine. Both comments and pings are currently closed.