Cellaring – how long can I keep a wine?
How long you can keep your wine depends on several factors:
- 1. What characters you like in your wine – as wine ages it shows less fruit and more complex, secondary characters. With white wines, the colour deepens towards gold and the fruit aromas become more toasted, honeyed and nutty. With reds the colour moves in to a browner hue, the nose becomes more earthy/complex and less fruit focused and the palate can soften.
- 2. The kind of wine it is – these days wines are made to enjoy on release. Often a red wine will stand up to a few years in bottle and can even improve. Some whites are made to age, usually those made with oak or with particular flavour and aroma compounds that develop favourably such as Riesling or Semillon.
- 3. Where you store it – wine needs a constant cool temperature to keep well. See “storage” for more details.
Most of us enjoy drinking wine that shows freshness and fruit – these are generally young wines. You’ll get to know your own style preferences as you experience a wide range of wines. If you would like further information please just give us a call.
Storage – I’ve just opened a bottle. How long will it keep?
A wine with the screwcap (or cork) replaced will retain it’s freshness for 1-2 days once opened and sometimes up to 3 or 4. The more air in the bottle (ullage), the more times it is opened (and so exposed to more air), and the older the wine is, the more the quality deteriorates. All wines (red or whites) keep better in the fridge.
Storage – I don’t have a wine cellar. Where should I keep my wine?
A wine cellar needs to have constant, cool temperature, few vibrations and be out of direct sunlight. The best places to keep wine for longer periods without a wine cellar are in a basement or under the stairs, in a cupboard in a spare room or in an insulated or shaded garage.
Remember – constant cool temperature, no direct sunlight and not near the washing machine on spin cycle.
Sparkling wine/Champagne – how do I stop the bottle foaming over?
First, chill the bottle in the fridge for at least an hour or two. Then remove the foil and loosen the wire (don’t remove it) keeping your thumb on the top of the cork. Hold the bottle from the base at a 45° angle and gently wriggle the base holding the cork firm.
As the pressure pushes the cork out keep pressing down on it to loosen it slowly, keeping the bottle at that 45° angle. Gently ease the cork out and don’t fully remove it until you are sure it’s not fizzing.
If you feel some fizzing keep the cork pressed in to the bottle until it subsides. Pour slowly!
Medals and endorsements – what do they all mean?
There are lots of different wine shows and competitions held all over the world. Some have different themes (like the Royal NZ International Aromatic Wine Competition), or a varietal/regional focus (like the Hawkes Bay A&P Show Wine Awards) and most wine shows and competitions make stickers available to winners to advertise their success in that show.
A wine-show endorsement tells you that that particular wine reached a certain level of achievement at that show at that time.
Generally to achieve a Bronze Medal the wine needs to have attained at least 15.5 points from 20 and up to 16.9 points; for Silver it needs 17.0 to 18.4 and for Gold it needs at least a whopping 18.5 points from 20.
Keep in mind that a medal or award is given to a particular vintage of that wine and that over time a wine can change. It pays then to note what year the competition was so you can see how current that award is.
Remember, not all wine producers enter competitions or shows. Medals and endorsements are a useful tool in your arsenal for helping to make an informed wine selection.
Preservatives in my wine – what are they?
Preservative 220, sulphur dioxide, or sulphites are forms of Sulphur Dioxide, a compound that has been used in winemaking for centuries.
It is used as a preservative and antioxidant to maintain the quality of the wine, in particular to retain freshness and stability. It also prevents oxidation which dulls flavour and aroma and it stops spoilage by yeast or bacteria.
The use of sulphur dioxide is carefully controlled and its concentration in wine is limited to levels deemed safe (and ideally organoleptically undetectable) as set by the NZFSA.
Milk, egg and fish in my wine – what are they doing there?
Milk, eggs and, to a lesser extent, fish products are used to remove astringent flavours and textures in wine. We call these fining agents and they are added to wine before its filtered so they flavours can be fine-tuned.
If winemakers do their job right there should be no fining agent left in the wine but current technology doesn’t let us measure residue. That’s why labels state when those products were used and that traces may remain.