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Daily Glass: Winning and Learning
Sometimes you win, and sometimes you learn.
You never lose – learning is the opposite of winning – I think this is a better approach to life, would you agree?
I love aging my wines. The popular wine press tells people that 95% of the wines in this world are meant to be consumed shortly after purchasing. “Absolute majority of the wine is not meant to be aged,” the message says. I don’t want to obnoxiously invalidate all the expert opinions, but the subject of wine aging is a lot more complicated than the simple statement portrays.
Lots of factors play a role. The wine itself is probably the most critical factor. White wines generally don’t age too well. To be more precise, percentage-wise, a lesser number of white wines can age well compared to red wines. But this doesn’t mean that all red wines age well. For example, red Cotes du Rhone typically don’t age for longer than 4-5 years.
I wish there was an easy method to tell us, wine lovers, that “this wine will age for 30 years”, but “this one got only 10 more left”. There is no such method, however, so we need to rely primarily on our experiences. I’m not trying to disqualify all of the wonderful advice we receive from the wine critic and publications – but it would be rare to receive an aging recommendation there unless the wine is deemed of a “collector” level – which pretty much means that it will not be really affordable.
At this point, you might wonder why is all this commotion with the aging of the wines. Simple. Wine is a living thing. The evolution of the wine continues in the bottle. It is a general hope that wine can improve with time, evolve, become more complex and multidimensional.But the wine can’t evolve forever – at some point it starts “turning”, losing its delicious, attractive qualities.
It is important that the wine drinker can appreciate the beauty of the aged wine – it is not for everyone. I don’t mean it in any disrespectful way – this is simply a matter of taste. One of my most favorite examples is the blind tasting of a few Champagnes which took place during Windows on the World wine classes. After blind tasting 4 Champagnes, the group was asked to vote for their favorite Champagne. Champagne #4 got almost no votes, it was clearly the least favorite of the group of 100+ people. While revealing the wines, Kevin Zraly, our wine teacher, said “and this is why, people, you should not drink vintage Champagne”. Bottle #4 was Dom Perignon – if people would see the label before voting, you know how that would work (”drink up, honey, it is French”). And Vintage Champagne is nothing more than just an aged wine. It is just a matter of taste. The same story goes for food. For example – I love fresh oysters, and I have friends who wouldn’t put an oyster into their mouth even if this will be required to save their own life. Just a matter of taste.
But for those of us who like aged wines, that elusive quest becomes an obsession. I love the Italian term “vino da meditazione”, which applies to the wines which make conversation stop upon the first sip, and puts the whole group of oenophiles into a quiet, self-reflective state. The silence at the table becomes not deafening, but instead a very comfortable one. The silence nobody wants to break.
Okay, such amazing encounters are possible but truly rare. But the pleasure of drinking the well-aged wine is real, and this is what we are seeking. And as we don’t have the scientific method of predicting the peak of enjoyment for a given wine, we have to rely on our own experience. Which takes us back to winning and learning. When we experienced well-aged wine, we clearly won. And when the wine with age doesn’t deliver the pleasure, this is where we learn.
It is not so binary, of course. The point is that no matter what happened, we learn something. When you taste a random but amazing $10 bottle of California red blend (Toasted Head) with 15 years of age on, you learn that inexpensive wines can age too. When you taste 2002 Barolo (Fontanafredda) 10 years after release, and you see that the vintage chart declares this vintage as literally horrible, but the wine tastes good, you learn that the producer matters more than the vintage. When you taste two bottles from the same producer and the same vintage, but you love one of them and can’t stand another, you learn that bottle variation is real and that you have to always manage your expectations.
This whole rambling about winning, learning and aging was prompted by a few wines I opened last week.
First, the learning part. 12 years ago we did the Pinot Noir blind tasting with friends, with a very unexpected outcome – 2008 Hamilton Russell Pinot Noir from South Africa was the best wine in that blind tasting. I loved the wine so much that I went and got a bottle to keep. Over the years, I made many attempts on the life of this bottle, until the last weekend I decided to share it with a friend. Upon opening the wine was reminiscent of the good Burgundy, with the nose offering some plums, iodine, and smoke. But the wine quickly succumbed to the tertiary aromas of dry herbs and maybe a hint of dried fruit, and while my friend really loved it, this was a complete loss learning in my book.
Then another friend was stopping shortly after his birthday. He always liked the wines, but recently started getting really “more into it”. He was stopping by for the dinner, and when we were talking about wines a few days prior, he mentioned that he started liking the Brunello and Amarone wines. There is no happier moment for the oenophile than to learn what the guest desires to drink – the cellar is instantly paraded in the search for the best and the most appropriate bottle.
I don’t know how I came into possession of the 2008 Altesino Brunello di Montalcino Montosoli, I can only guess I got it as a present. This single vineyard Brunello di Montalcino was absolutely spectacular – beautiful cherries on the palate – not the fresh and crunchy ones, but more subdued, more elegant, eloped in the sage and other herbal aromatics. The wine was spectacular when we opened it, and when I finished the last drop 2 days later (wine was kept in the bottle with the air pumped out), I had a clear feeling of regret as the wine was not gone, but instead was still fresh and even more complex, with a promise of becoming the Vini da meditations in 10 years, same the 1999 Soldera had become for us – alas, I don’t have another bottle…
And then my pet peeve – you know how much I love Amarone. I got a few bottles of the 2006 Trabucchi d’Illasi Amarone della Valpolicella from WTSO 7 years ago. This was my last bottle, and boy it didn’t disappoint. It was absolutely beautiful in its finesse and impeccable balance all the way through. Dried fruit on the nose, powerful, well-structured wine on the palate, with more of the dried fruit, cherries, plums and herbs, and with good acidity, perfect balance and delicious bitter finish. It is not for nothing Amarone means Great Bitter – and there was this pleasant bitterness on the finish, something hard to find in most of the Amarone wines.
Here you are, my friends, my story of winning and learning. Three aged wines, two of them delicious, two that could age for far longer (learning!). One learning experience – but who knows, maybe it was only that particular bottle. Moving on.
What did you win and learn lately?
I Know Nothing. Notes From The Desk of Puzzled Oenophile
Of course, I’m aware of the proverbial circle of knowledge. When your knowledge is represented by the tiny dot, it seems that the surrounding unknown is equally tiny. As your circle of knowledge increases in size, you get to understand that the surrounding unknown is vast and grows together with your knowledge.
Nevertheless, today’s wine lesson proved that I know nothing about wines. Or maybe I am just bad at predicting the future.
A long time ago I attended a wine tasting event to celebrate the anniversary of The Wine Century Club. The event was hosted in New York by the folks from Snooth with the idea that everybody should bring a bottle or a few of the wine(s) made from rare grapes. I have no memories of the wines I brought – I believe one of them was a blend with lots of different grapes in it, but this is really not important for our story. My absolute highlight of that get-together was a bottle of Loire white wine, made from the grape called Romorantin coming from the Cour-Cheverny AOC, which I never heard of before (both grape and appellation). If I’m not mistaken this event took place in 2008, and this bottle of Romorantin was from 1998 vintage. The wine was amazing in its youthfulness and brilliance, vibrant lemon and honey, crisp and fresh. Again, if I can still trust my memory, the person who brought wine said that he (or she) got the bottle at one of the Manhattan wine stores for around $50. I made a note to myself that I want to find this wine and age it – as you know, I’m a super-fan (read: geek and zealot) of aged wines.
I think literally next year I got lucky – I found 2007 François Cazin Le Petit Chambord Cour-Cheverny AOC available at my local wine shop, for about $15 per bottle. I got 6 bottles and prepared to happily and patiently wait for the right moment to open this wine.
I don’t remember when I opened the first bottle of this, maybe 2-3 years later, and the wine didn’t wow – it was acidic all the way, without much salvation.
My next attempt to replicate the amazing experience of the first encounter with Romorantin, was made in 2014. Here are my notes:
2014
2007 François Cazin Le Petit Chambord Cour-Cheverny AOC (12% ABV, 100% Romorantin) – bright white stone fruit on the nose, citrus (lemon) notes on the palate, medium to full body, zinging acidity. It is getting there, but needs another 4-5 years to achieve full beauty and grace. 8-
As you can tell we are moving in the right direction but still far from the destination. Another year, another attempt – again, a copy and paste from the previous post:
2015
This is a rare French white wine made from 100% Romorantin grape. I remember a few years back trying this wine at 10 years of age – and I remember being simply blown away by the exuberant beauty of this seemingly unassuming wine (new vintages retail at around $15 – the QPR is through the roof on this). The nose of that 2007 was amazing, with fresh white fruit, guava, mango, honeysuckle, lemon, and lemon zest. On the palate, behind the first wave of Riesling-like appearance with a touch of sweetness and tropical fruit notes, there were layers and layers of acidity and minerality. After about 10 minutes of breathing time, the wine was almost bone dry, very crisp, and refreshing. I still have 3 bottles of 2007, and now the trick will be to keep my hands away from them, as they still benefit from time.
It is quite possible that this was this wine at its peak? The next attempt was much less successful, despite the fact that we are passing 10 years mark now. I brought the bottle to Jim Van Bergen’s (JvBUncorked) house to celebrate Open That Bottle Night 2019. I was really hoping for a “wow”, or at least an “omg” from the group, but this definitely didn’t happen:
2019
2007 François Cazin Le Petit Chambord Cour-Cheverny AOC
Why: This is one of my favorite wines. When it was 10 years old, was literally blown away
How was it: Underwhelming. A touch of petrol, clean, good acidity, bud no bright fruit. Still delicious in its own way – I would gladly drink it any time. But – lucking the “umpf” which was expected… Still have 2 more bottles – will open them later on and see.
Underwhelming was the word. Okay, down to the two bottles.
At the virtual OTBN2021, I made another attempt to experience greatness. Here’s how it went:
2021
The miracle didn’t happen, and the white wine didn’t become suddenly magical. If I need to describe this 2007 François Cazin Le Petit Chambord Cour-Cheverny AOC in one word, the word would be “strange”. At some moments, it was oxidative and plump. In other moments, it was acidic. It never showed that amazing lemon and honey notes I was expecting. I still have one more bottle, but now I really need to forget it for as long as possible and see if the miracle will happen.
And now we are down to one, my last bottle.
I was feeling blue, and I needed a “pick me up” bottle. Considering my loving relationship with wine, a “pick me up bottle” is nothing specific – it can be something very different every time. This time I wanted a white wine with some age on it. Marsanne/Roussanne would be ideal, but I had none of those. A have a few bottles of Peter Michael with a nice age on them, but this would be a bit too lavish and still not fitting the mood. And then I saw my last bottle of Romorantin, and the thought was “yeah, I can appreciate some oxidative notes right now”
The bottle is out of the wine fridge. Cork goes out in one piece with no issues. I poured wine into the glass to take a picture. Beautiful color, between light golden and golden – remember, this is 15 years old white wine.
The first whiff from the glass was clean, with lemon and minerality, an impression of a young, confident white wine. The first sip simply confirmed that first impression – whitestone fruit, crisp, minerally-driven, vibrant, and refreshing. A distant hint of petrol showed up on the nose, very faint, and a touch of honey. The wine was alive, the wine was fresh, the wine was perfect.
The wine continued its finesse on the second day (it was a heroic act of not polishing the whole bottle on the first day), behaving as young and fresh white wine of the new harvest. In a blind tasting, I would be completely sure that his wine is one or two years old at the best.
Anyone cares to explain this to me? I stored all 6 bottles the same way. Maybe the wine was strangely not ready in 2019 (sleeping stage), and last year’s bottle simply had an issue of cork? Maybe what I tasted in 2015 was actually a peak, and so this vintage needed only 8 years and not 10? Why 1998 was amazing at 10 years of age, and 2007 was amazing at 8 and 15? Vintage variations? Change in winemaking between 1998 and 2007? Wine Spectator vintage charts consider 2007 Loire wines past prime. Wine Enthusiast’s vintage rating for 1998 is 86, and 2007 is 92. And none of it helps.
If you have any ideas, please chime in.
I know nothing. But I will continue learning.
Daily Glass: Humbled By The Wine (Again)
The inner snob (unsilenceable). The charade of expectation. All together in a conundrum. Yeah, I know I’m not making sense. Please allow me to explain myself.
Just came back after a small party at a friend, who doesn’t drink much, but always makes sure he has an ample wine supply for the guests. He stores wines in the dark, cold room in the basement, so the conditions are good. But the wines sometimes get lost there. Not in any bad sense – they simply might stay there for years.
When he brought up a magnum of 2004 (!) Rosemount Shiraz/Cabernet Sauivignon South Eastern Australia (53% Shiraz, 47% Cabernet Sauvignon, 14% ABV), the inner snob made a quick assessment – “oh, sh!t”, he said. I just recently had bad experience with 2005 Shiraz, which was supposed to be magnificent, but was not, and with 2012 Shiraz of a [supposedly] high pedigree, so you have to excuse that little snob guy. Rosemount is a well known producer from Australia, but it is a mass-producer, and this Shiraz/Cabernet Sauvignon from a current vintage can be acquired today for a whooping $7 on average, according to the wine-searcher. So $7 wine, aged for 11 years – what would you expect? I would assume you see the conundrum now.
Well, there is only way to find out – the truth is in the glass, right? The wine is poured, and it is … delicious. Inviting nose of the dark fruit, nothing extra. On the palate – plums, blackberries, touch of spices, sweet oak, soft tannins, very present acidity and overall, very balanced wine. The wine was delivering lots of pleasure, and as one glass was finished, the next one was desired almost immediately. Drinkability: 8-
So here is the story, of the humbled snob and exceeded expectations (greatly exceeded). Is there a moral here? I think there is, and it is rather simple: give the wine a chance. You never know what is in the bottle – whether it is $7 or $107 bottle of wine, you still don’t know it. Yes, you have expectations, but the ultimate truth is inside of your glass. Stay humble, my friends, but expect the best. Cheers!
Wednesday’s Meritage – Wine Quiz Answer, Wine Aging, Wine of 50 States, Food Photography and more
Meritage Time!
Let’s start with the answer for the wine quiz #53, grape trivia: Cabernet Sauvignon. This was the first in the new series of quizzes I hope to continue for a while – for the next few weeks, I plan to run questions around popular grapes. This time the subject was Cabernet Sauvignon, and here are the questions with the answers:
Q1: Which two grapes are the parents of Cabernet Sauvignon? A: For the long time prevailing theory was that Cabernet Sauvignon had some ancient roots – until DNA research showed that Cabernet Sauvignon originated in 17th century in France and it is a cross of Cabernet Franc and Sauvignon Blanc.
Q2: The world’s oldest Cabernet Sauvignon vines are located in (name winery and/or vineyard for extra credit):
A. Bordeaux
B. Chile
C. California
D. Australia – correct answer. Kalimna Vineyard Block 42 at Penfolds has 140 years old Cabernet Sauvignon vines.
E. Georgia
Q3: True or False: Since 2000, plantings of Cabernet Sauvignon increased in Bordeaux? A: False. Since 2000, Cabernet Sauvignon plantings had been decreasing and Merlot plantings increasing as Merlot is ripening about 15 days earlier than Cabernet Sauvignon and thus easier to use in the blends.
Q4: The second largest in the world plantings (by area) of Cabernet Sauvignon grapes are located in:
A. Australia
B. California
C. Chile
D. Hungary
E. Moldova – quite unexpectedly (for me, at least), this is the correct answer.
F. South Africa
Q5: Absolute majority of Bordeaux wines are blends. Name four grapes which are traditional blending companions of Cabernet Sauvignon in Bordeaux
A: Merlot, Cabernet Franc, Petit Verdot and Malbec are four major blending companions of Cabernet Sauvignon in Bordeaux.
There were many good answers this week, and we have three winners – The Drunken Cyclist, Red Wine Diva and Armchairsommelier all correctly answered all five questions, plus the Armchairsommelier also correctly identified the oldest Cabernet Sauvignon Vineyard. They get the traditional prize of unlimited bragging rights. Well done!
And now, to the interesting stuff around the net. Lets start from the subject of wine aging. Few days ago I shared my thoughts on the subject of wine aging – and then I noticed an article by Steve Heimoff talking about wine critic’s approach to recommending wines for aging (or not). Quite frankly, I don’t think I found any revelations in that article, but it sheds some light on the reason behind “drink after 2056” recommendations.
It is no secret that wine is made in all 50 states in US (it’s actually being like that for about ten years by now – I used to ask this question as part of fun trivia during my wine tastings) – but when Jancis Robinson is talking about it, it means that we actually went over the hump – here is her article in Financial Times where she is talking about new reality of wine making and wine consumption in United States.
I don’t know how many of you are familiar with El Bulli – the famous restaurant in Spain by world renowned chef Ferran Adria, a father and mother of molecular gastronomy. Visiting El Bulli was my dream for many many years, which is not going to materialize, as restaurant closed a few years ago. In one of the the Meritage issues last year I mentioned that wine list from El Bulli was available online (140 pages of wine goodness – if you are interested in taking a pick, my post still has a link to it) – now, as Bloomberg reports, El Bulli cellar was auctioned in Hong Kong for the total of $8.8M. The money raised will be used for the purposes of El Bulli foundation.
I was somewhat late writing this post today (ideally, I want Meritage posts to come out in the morning, but – oh well…) – and I’m glad I did, as I came across a wonderful post by Stefano Crosio about Food Photography. A Food Photography Primer is a great and very generous post which gives you step by step details on how to take amazing food pictures. And talking about that subject of food pictures, I need to share with you a healthy dose of the food porn form the blog I always drool over – My French Heaven. Warning – DO NOT click this link if you are hungry – please don’t, as I can’t be responsible for the consequences.
Okay, I’m sure you did click on that link, so my work is done here. The glass is empty. Refill is coming. Until the next time – cheers!
Wednesday’s Meritage – Wine Ingredients, F&W Winemaker of the Year and more

It’s Meritage Time!
Today’s Meritage issue is somewhat unusual – it doesn’t contain the main element, the answer for the wine quiz. The reason is very simple – nobody even tried to answer that quiz. Come on, my wine loving friends, at least you can give it a try! To remind you, in the Wine Quiz #32 you were supposed to match 6 red wine grapes (out of 7) with 6 wine reviews. Please try it again – hopefully there are some brave wine lovers out there.
As far as interesting wine reading is concerned, I came across a few articles I wanted to bring to your attention.
First, there was an interesting article by New York Times’ wine and food critic Eric Azimov about Bonny Doon winemaker Randall Grahm, who started putting wine ingredients on the back label of his wines. I don’t know about you, but I don’t think I care to know if he added tartaric acid or oak chips to his wines – I mostly care about the taste of the wine, and I trust that winemaker did his or her best to create a good wine. But – that’s me – and I would be interested in your opinion.
Next is an article in Food and Wine magazine about best winemakers of the year 2012 – I personally never heard of them before nor tried their wines – but thanks to the article, I now will be on a lookout for them.
And now a couple of articles on one of my all times favorite subjects – ageability of wines. Not all the wines in general, but mostly the California Cabernets. Both articles are from the Palate Press, an online wine magazine.
First article is written by Evan Dawson, and it is discussing the subject of California cult Cabernet Sauvignon being fit for aging (or not) depending on the source of the fruit (valley floor or mountain) and the ABV level of the wine – with discussion referring to the opinion of Randy Dunn, a winemaker behind eponymous Howell Mountain Cabernet. I don’t think I drunk enough California cult Cabernet to have an opinion one way or the other, but I can tell you that I had 2002 Dunn Cabernet when it was about 9 years of age, and it took that wine 5 days just to start opening up.
The second article is by the W. Blake Gray and it is talking about many wines (again taking California cult Cabernet as an example) are made for instant consumption and not meant to be aged – however, many wine connoisseurs still acquire those wine specifically for aging, and will be disappointed in the long run (and will lose money).
Both articles are excellent and are very interesting to read in my opinion – but let me know what your thoughts are.
That’s all for today, folks. The glass is empty. Happy Wine Wednesday and Cheers!
Will This Wine Age?
Yes, it is no secret that I prefer to drink wines which have some age on them – we even discussed this in one of the recent posts. What happens when the wine ages? In one simple word, it evolves. Its taste changes – for the better. It gets to the different level of complexity – and delivers more pleasure. Sometimes, it even brings an element of awe with it – when you are drinking wine which is 30, 50 or may be even hundred years old, and it still tastes great (try to keep some food to taste good for a couple of decades – let me know if you will succeed), it is an amazing experience.
Now, if you want to drink aged wines, you got two choices. You can buy wines which are already aged (Benchmark Wine Company is one of the great sources of aged wines). It is not easy to find what you want, and aged wines are usually expensive. Another option is to buy the wine, and keep it in your cellar until it reaches the optimum drinking age. When using second option, the trick is to know when the perfect age is, right? There are few ways to go about it. The classic “collectors” way is to buy a case ( at least), and then open a bottle from time to time and see (err, taste) what is going on. This is a good way to go, but it requires storage space and money.
Then you can rely on the advice of the wine critics – when you look at wine review in Wine Spectator or Wine Advocate, very often you will see a recommended time range when the wine will be at its best. This should work, but might be a bit boring. What else? You can play with your wine. What I mean is that you can conduct a little experiment and learn with a good probability how well your wine will age. In order to do this, you will need only a minimal set of tools (one tool, to be precise), a little air, a bottle of wine and a few days of time.
As far as tool is concerned, I don’t mean any of those fancy $200 silver, magnetic and whatever else concoctions which promise to magically manipulate characteristics of wine and make it age in no time. So the tool which you will need is called a vacuum pump, like the one you can see below (this one is made by the company called VacuVin):
One of the most important components in the wine aging is oxygen. Oxygen, which makes its way in a miniscule quantity through the cork into the wine bottle, makes wine to change, to age. As soon as the bottle of wine is opened, the process of aging is started. This is why when you open a bottle of a young wine, you need to give it a little time to “breathe”, to open up, to absorb the air and subsequently, to evolve. Now, the idea is simple. You open the bottle, pour a glass, then you close a bottle with the rubber stopper and pump the air out, and put the bottle aside (no need for special storage conditions). You repeat this process the next day, then the next day and may be even the next day again! There is no science here (or may be there is one, but at least I don’t know the formula), but I think every additional day the wine drinks well means about 5 -8 years of the normal aging. Therefore, if the wine will be improving for the 4 days in the row, you can expect that it will reach its peak in 20-30 years.
Want an example? The bottle of 2007 Chappellet Pritchard Hill Napa Valley Cabernet Franc made it into my house. On the first day, the wine was not showing much except tremendous density and the color, which was more black than red. The second day didn’t show much change. On the day 3, some of the black fruit started coming out, with some spices and tiniest hint of green peppers (can be my imagination too). And then finally, on the day four, the fruit became easily noticeable, together with good acidity and nice balanced tannins. The wine was almost drinkable… but too late, as the bottle was gone at that point. I think one more day would make it amazing – but I can only hope to find out that at some point in the future.
Don’t be afraid to play with your wine – after all, it is only another kind of food, right? Ooops, this might not sound too well. Anyway, experiment – and uncover new amazing taste. And remember that little age is always good (you just need to define “little” ). Cheers!