This wine just keeps getting better and better. After opening this, I’m down to my last bottle of this wonderful vintage and I’m wishing I bought more. Soon I’ll have to start opening the 2007.
Deep brick red clear color. Fragrant aromas of violets, cloves and cherry. Helen’s feminine style is evident in this gorgeous wine. Silky and luxurious dark cherry and raspberry flavors. The savory characteristics beg for rich foods such as duck or pork belly. True, it’s very high alcohol at 15.5%, but the wine is so well integrated it doesn’t taste hot and maintains an understated richness on the palate. How does she do that? A medium finish with a hint of cracked black pepper. One of the best Grenache I’ve had from California. read more…
As promised, the second part of this article has some more specific questions about the reasons for cellaring wine.
Q: What are the ideal conditions to properly store my wine collection?
A: There are three issues that will affect the proper storage of wine: light, temperature and humidity. UV rays from light will damage wine by breaking down the organic compounds in wine that contribute to its aroma, flavor and overall structure. An ideal location should be dark. Humidity is a consideration because of the corks used in sealing wine bottles. A relative humdity of 60% – 70% is ideal. Low humidity can lead to failures in the cork seal and then the low humidity condition would cause faster evaporation of the wine. Assuming we can find a dark place with sufficient humidity, temperature is the most important factor in properly storing wine. A cool stable temperature keeps wine from aging too rapidly and preserves its characteristics. Most European wine caves have a naturally occurring temperature of about 13º Celsius or about 55º Fahrenheit with about ±1º fluctuation. Since wine has been historically stored at this temperature with great success, 55ºF is the ideal temperature most experts agree on. read more…
This is the first part of a two part article. I ended up with so much to write about on this topic, it seemed too much for just one article.
Does this sound familiar to you?
- It’s the weekend, let’s visit some tasting rooms.
- Mmm, I really like this wine.
- Let’s get a few bottles of it.
- I’m joining their wine club.
- Drive to the next place.
- Repeat 2 – 5.
- Next free weekend, repeat 1 – 6.
Do this a few times and most wine lovers eventually become wine collectors. It’s inevitable that when you find something you really like, you’ll buy more than just one or two bottles so you can enjoy them later. If you’re like me, you don’t plan on collecting wine; it just happens. Eventually, you’ll have enough wine to fill a small room and, with summer approaching and temperatures rising, you’ll begin to worry about storing that collection properly. After all, you have a lot invested in those liquid assets. During my time working with a wine accessories company, I heard a lot of questions from customers about wine storage and thought it might be helpful to post some of the most common questions and answers here in a FAQ. read more…
