Mar 01 2009
Old Wine
There are few times in life, mine anyway, when you get the chance to drink a cabernet that is 24 years old. Now most things that I have read about the taste of old wine is probably not good unless one; you know exactly what you are drinking and two; how that wine has been stored over its many years of bottled life. Many articles that I have read warn about developing a taste for “old wines”. They are definitely different in structure, flavor, texture and color.
I hark back 30 years ago to when my wife and I had a rack of wine, (6 bottles on top of the china cabinet), in our dining room.
(Andrew now has this 6 bottle walnut wine rack made by his dad holding wine in the living room)
It was clearly displayed in the “good light” and all six were chosen for the brightly colored foil, each one different, so it looked really “neat”. We were moving from that home and in packing up those old bottles we decided to try one that had been given to us by some friends. They had stopped in a “winery” in Minnesota on their vacation years ago. It was a red, that’s all I remember. Wine is supposed to get better with age, right? I pulled out the flakey rotten cork which disintegrated the minute I stuck the corkscrew into it. I destroyed the cork and had to strain the chunks of cork with a tea strainer from the drawer in the kitchen that housed all the utensils and gadgets that we hardly ever used and should probably be thrown away. While performing this rather disheartening task, I noticed the smell coming from the “brown” liquid I was trying to remove the “pieces” out of. It reminded me a lot of the medicine that my Mom used to pour on any of my open cuts that burned like hell when I was a kid, but was always reminded that “it had to be done to clean and disinfect the wound”. Pew!
I poured out an ounce or so in a glass, brought it up to my lips slowly took a little sip. Holy Crap! It tasted worse than it smelled! The stinky remains went immediately down the kitchen sink and I vowed to never try old wine again! Yuck!
Many years have passed and my appreciation for good wine has grown, as well as my curiosity of all great wines that are said to be candidates for laying down for aging. First of all, I could never afford to buy a great old wine to try anyway. That brings me to the fun part of this story. We are friends with a retired couple from Minneapolis, Minnesota, who spend 3 months renting a unit in our condo complex from January to March each winter. We’ve become very close friends and share a common bond in our passion for good wine, especially at affordable prices. A really cool sidelight to this relationship is that their daughter is a very successful head wine maker with the William / Selyem Winery on the Russian River south of Healdsburg, California. She had originally interned with Mondovi and has held chief winemaking duties at Freemark Abbey and Clois du Bois. While at Freemark Abbey, she had sent her parents a bottle of 1985 cabernet, writing on the label in pen, “The Good Stuff”, when she sent it. He had saved it all these years (24 to be exact) and brought it to Florida with them this winter to share with my wife and me.
Now, admittedly, I was a bit worried about several things with this wine. Was it stored properly? Would it be “corked”? What would I say if tasted really bad?
They brought it over one evening and I carefully removed the foil and screwed the corkscrew into the old cork, but did not see any previous leakage or badly discolored cork. I slowly pulled it out. Oh Crap! Two thirds of the top of the cork had split away from the bottom of the cork and came out with the corkscrew! What remained in the neck was dark stained but looked to be solid and did not crumble into the bottle. I carefully screwed the cork screw through what remained and very gently and slowly pulled it out. It came out clean and did not leave any cork pieces in the bottle. Whew! What a relief!
The smell was of wine, not sour or vinegar, with a hint of “medicine” or slight bitter aroma, but not offensive, Now was when all my recent reading on what to expect in viewing, smelling and tasting “old wine” kicked in and what I should expect. I poured a very small portion into a large balloon glass and gave it to my guest for him to taste it first. He sipped slowly and certainly a bit apprehensively, but quickly reported that most assuredly tasted of wine and was “not too bad”.
Now it was my turn to taste it. With a small pour for myself, I swirled it and carefully smelled it again. It still was a pleasant aroma with just that hint of alcohol. I sipped it and held it on my tongue in my mouth. It was actually very smooth and the taste was very good – different – but very good. I carefully decanted the rest of the bottle and was cautious to pour carefully to leave all the sediment in the bottle. The four of us each took a small pour into our glasses and shared a toast and all of us enjoyed the “old wine tasting” experience. We studied the color, the nose and the smooth taste. The wives both agreed it was good but would rather share a bottle of point noir, which I dutifully opened for them to enjoy.
Then it happened; the conversation was literally flying while reminiscing their daughter’s past in the wine making business, so not much more of the wine had been tasted of several minutes. I swirled my glass again and inhaled another long aromatic pull from my glass, tasted it again and held the mouthful in my mouth for a long time. Wow! It had changed! I guess this is what the experts mean when old wine is opened and allowed to breath and “open up” letting the oxygen mix with the wine. It was amazingly wonderful! What a fantastic experience! There was another full glass left for my friend and for me, and we gladly finished the remainder, savoring the taste as each sip became better to the very end.
I will probably never get a chance to enjoy an old bottle of great wine like that again, and I guarantee I’ll never forget it! What a fun evening a great wine and great friends. I can’t thank them enough for the enough for the experience. I’m sure we’ll continue to share good wine and great times with them for years to come.
Jim Albinger (Andrew’s dad) grew up in smalltown northwest Iowa in the 1950’s. He has been writing down his experiences looking back at all that has shaped his current wine tasting hobby. Expect to see more of Jim’s writings here at offthecork.com.
