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Wine that has been stored badly can develop some unique flaws. Like wine stored too hot can pick up a jammy character, and a fluctuation in temperatures during storage can oxidise it (browning in reds, darkening/browning in whites). A bad cork can lead to an oxidised wine too though so it isn't definitive, and of course someone might have just bottled an oxidised wine.
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Oct 30, 2013 04:29
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| # ¿ May 10, 2024 07:11 |
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Ola posted:Speaking of Chateauneuf-du-Pape, doesn't this cork look like a wine that's been stored to hot? Our what other conditions could bring about wine creeping up like that? The cork looks fine to me. If the seepage had come right to the top you might have a problem but that isn't the case here. Because cork is a natural product you can get a huge amount of variation from bottle to bottle, even with the same wine. If a wine was corked (i.e. TCA taint) it has nothing to do with the storage condition of the bottle and more to do with the lovely cork the producer used. TCA is due to a fungus from the cork bark reacting to bleaches used in the manufacturing process. If the faults you found were oxidation or a cooked taste to the wine then storage could be cause the problem, although it needn't be the storage at the airport that caused the problem - wine being shipped in bottles is exposed to all sorts of temperature variations if the shipping container isn't refrigerated.
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Nov 11, 2013 05:54
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No but I've thought of making some from some wire and some bits of wood as handles. You don't need to use them on port, you can open any old bottle with them it's just that vintage port was typically the wine that people kept for the longest.
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Nov 11, 2013 08:37
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Overwined posted:I always refer to these by their colloquial French name which is Butler's Best Friend which implies they are both useful for opening wines with old/soft corks and for opening wines surreptitiously. I thought a butlers friend was the thing with the two flat prongs that slide down either side of the cor to get it out without damaging it (so it can be put back in once that bottle of Grange has been topped up with a $20 supermarket shiraz). Port tongs are the metal things that snap glass when you heat them up and wrap them around the neck of the bottle. Ola posted:Oh ok. The CdP was ok, but the other was horrid, moldy basement which hit the nose right when the cork popped. Anyway, the rate of tainted wines from airports vs non-tainted from local store stands. Next time, whiskey. That moldy aroma is pretty characteristic of TCA, but like I say that has more to do with the corks the winery is buying rather than the airport. But now that you can get screwcaps made especially to allow certain amounts of oxygen permeation hopefully corks will gently caress off forever.
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Nov 13, 2013 04:28
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Orange wine from citrus alone doesn't work very well because the citric acid is food for microbes so in the early days when one of the main advantages of wine (other than getting wasted) was longevity wine from citrus would not have lasted long enough to be worthwhile.
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Nov 14, 2013 22:45
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that Vai sound posted:One of the factors in wine aging is the cork breathing a little bit, right? Is it really able to breath if the foil wrapper is surrounding it? The seal between the foil and the cork/bottle is much looser than the seal formed between the cork and the inside of the bottleneck so the effect of the foil is negligible compared to the cork. The volumes of air we're talking about here are fractions of a milliliter per hour or something so it doesn't need to be a very big gap.
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Dec 3, 2013 06:56
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Some of the Rutherglen Durifs have a pretty good reputation if you enjoy a wine that can be consumed using a knife and fork. Massive, just not especially subtle or elegant.
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Dec 5, 2013 03:24
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that Vai sound posted:The bottle of wine I tried today had sediment coating all parts of the inside. What's the right way to pour from a bottle like that? The stuff on the sides shouldn't come out when you pour as it should have stuck to the glass. Just pour it very slowly and steadily into a decanter, hold a light under the neck so you can see when the solids are starting to come out. You can rinse out the bottle and chuck the decanted wine back in if you want people to be able to see the label, or just throw the remaining wine and lumpy bits into a bolognese sauce. If any sediment gets into the decanter don't worry too much. Anyone with any knowledge of wine will accept a little sediment in and old vintage, it's just part of the experience.
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Dec 24, 2013 09:25
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bigwoody posted:This last Sunday, I basically had the greatest liquid of my life, and since it was mentioned in the OP it's worth a re-mention from me (an admitted wine-idiot, so pardon me if I fail to describe properly). Those wines are delicious and any others you find will be similar in style, although the quality may not be the same as the one you tried because 93 was one of the best vintages in Tokaj since the end of communism. There are quite a few similar sweet wines made using different techniques from the same region so you'll have fun learning what all the different names mean.
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Jan 1, 2014 21:53
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96, 99 and 2000 and 2005 were all quite good. I still have a few bottles of those kicking around, just looking for a good time to drink them.
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Jan 1, 2014 23:15
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For books you can't go past The Oxford Companion to Wine and The World Atlas of Wine. They'll last longer than any wine you can buy and provide info and enjoyment for many years. If he's studying oenology you could get some academic books like Principles and Practices of Winemaking (Boulton) or The Handbook of Enology Vol 1 & 2 (Ribereau-Gayon) but those are really expensive.
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Jan 6, 2014 02:16
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Yeah I have to say that it seemed like a somewhat strange attack on Bordeaux. Those wines are a bit over priced in Australia compared to the local Cab Savs (but this is true of every imported wine here barring NZ Sav Blanc) but they are still really nice. All of those grapes make great wine both in Bordeaux and in other regions, both as single varietals and in blends.
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Jan 27, 2014 21:53
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Very Australian cab savs few have alcohols above 15% now that the Robert Parker craze has died down, the best come from cooler regions like Coonawarra or the Yarra Valley and can have alcohol as low as 12.5%. I don't think you know as much about viticulture and climate as you think you do. It's been a while since I've had a flick through Gladstones but there is quite a complex relationship between continentality, diurnal variations, climate, sunlight hours and eventual grape quality. Bordeaux is precisely what most people would describe as a moderate climate as opposed to the cool climates of Burgundy, the cold climates of Champagne and the warm to hot climates in the southern Rhone regions. Carmenere was reasonably well regarded in Bordeaux before phylloxera but it was prone to disease and had low yields so when they replanted their vines on rootstocks very little of that variety was retained for commercial reasons. Now there is a bit of renewed interest and some of the more quality conscious growers are replanting it for their blends. I have tried a great deal of different grape varieties and if I have learned one thing it is that criticizing them out of hand is really dumb because each really needs to be in their own niche to thrive, but when they are in such a favourable location they can be as god as any other. The obvious exception are those ridiculous mega high yielding varieties recently bred for making brandy and wine vinegar.
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Jan 28, 2014 00:08
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Concentrated flavour is generally good in wines for aging, but in some warmer climates (I'm thinking of the Barossa Valley and McLaren Vale here in Australia) it can come at the price of an overly high alcohol content. This can be fine when the wine is young because there is a lot of 'structure' in the wine to mask the sweetness and heat of the alcohol, but as the wine ages the structure 'softens' which can cause the alcohol to become too pronounced and detract from the overall quality of the wine. That said I've tried some very delicate wines that have aged very well so flavour concentration isn't the be all and end of all of aging wine.
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Feb 9, 2014 06:03
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Acid is good but I'd say that having all components of the wine (tannin (where applicable), acid, alcohol, body, sweetness/RS and flavour) in balance with each other is, at least in my experience a better predictor of a wine's ageing potential.
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Feb 9, 2014 08:36
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Something I've found is that sparkling wine from cooler regions that aren't Champagne are far better value than Champagne itself unless you are desperate to drink the real thing.
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Feb 26, 2014 22:11
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Cru Beaujolais is regarded as one of the most versatile wines for pairing with food, one of those wouldn't hurt.
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Mar 2, 2014 23:42
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A lot of cheaper reds from a warm climate will come across as being a bit sweet due to the fruity flavours and vanillin oak in them, without actually having a higher than usual residual sugar. A higher alcohol wine will also taste a little sweeter due to the extra sweetness from the alcohol and the wine having riper flavours.
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Mar 22, 2014 05:47
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Yeah, some of then non-vinifera grapevines are pretty cold tolerant, they just have that overpowering foxy, grape jelly flavour as opposed to the flavours of traditional grape varieties. I guess some people just like the idea of the winery/vineyard lifestyle despite living pretty close tot he arctic circle. Assuming the climate is suitable though, some of these countries are starting to improve their wines as technology and trained winemakers become more readily available.
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Apr 23, 2014 00:07
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Overwined posted:Hah! I like how they use word "traded" as if it were bartered for battery acid or something after finding out it was itself a poor substitute for battery acid. The old seaside Keo brewery/winery in Cyprus still has the enormous pipes used to pump vast volumes of lovely wine into the holds of tanker ships heading to the USSR.
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Apr 24, 2014 00:20
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I'm guessing the dog isn't a fan of rosé?
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May 5, 2014 22:56
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Do they not get paid bonuses for having good fruit?
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May 18, 2014 00:55
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Its a little overripe, no?
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May 22, 2014 03:20
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Sticky date pudding would be my choice.
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May 24, 2014 04:42
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Some of the Australian fortified wines from the Rutherglen region can have that 'cooked' character seen in Madeiras. Not to the same extent but they have spent many years sitting in hot tin sheds in a semi desert region so there is a little bit there. No idea who exports to the US though.
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Jun 9, 2014 23:29
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Botrytised dessert wine with a blue cheese is always my favourite.
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Jul 2, 2014 03:48
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Just generally speaking based on my experiences: -White Floral - it might be hard to find but I recall a Hungarian grape called Zeta made very floral wines, otherwise a muscat blanc -Eucalyptus/Mint - any red from the Clare Valley -Resinous - retsina -Chemical - it might be easier to adulterate some generic wines with the chemicals for this, it is quite common to do this for sensory training because tainted wines often don't make it to market. -Moldy - you can sometimes pick this character up in cheap botrytised wines -Mineral - Pikes 'The Merle' Clare Valley Riesling -Any kind of mouthfeel extremes - again, this is probably easiest to do by adding tannin or something a generic wine
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Oct 27, 2014 02:48
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Washing in it would improve some wines I've tried.
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Nov 4, 2014 02:07
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Crimson posted:The general public will always be like a decade behind what the most astute drinkers and small producers are doing. I see a lot of reasons to be optimistic. I'm in a restaurant with a lot of cab drinking business men and tourists, but I can't keep some well known "balanced" producers like Littorai and Ceritas on the shelves, so the demand is there. I'm trying to be optimistic because I'm really hoping reds over 15% ABV die out ASAP. We can assume the masses will always be drinking swill, but I think the backlash against Parker has had made some real headway in affecting the style of wines we're seeing from newer wineries. I don't think it will. The great unwashed drink for different reasons and look for different things in wine to wine educated people. Unless you've been trained (or self taught) how to appreciate balance and other subtleties, a rich and fruity bottle of overripe Cabernet or Shiraz is exactly what most people want to drink.
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Jan 17, 2015 10:52
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I'd get the Disznoko, but none of those are likely to disappoint. Just be aware that the 6 puttonyos will be a fair bit sweeter than the others, and Royal Tokaji tend to be a bit more oxidized in style than the Disznoko and the Megyer wines.
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Jan 24, 2015 21:47
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| # ¿ May 10, 2024 07:11 |
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pork never goes bad posted:It's romanee conti, 1960. I'll try to fix the picture shortly. Thanks for the tips, I always use butlers friend for old wine, though the bottle agitation on tough corks sometimes feels too much. You could always use port tongs to open it, specially designed for getting truly ancient corks out.
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Jan 29, 2015 09:32
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