That Wine Guy
Does wine get better with age?
Michael Banias
People say that red wine gets better with age. They speak of mythical bottles of wine found in the bellies of sunken ships that date back to 1866 and that sold for hundreds of thousands of dollars. These bottles must be good, right? Yes, but only if you like vinegar with your fish and chips.
This is a little over the top. It is highly unlikely that a bottle of wine could survive for that long, and underwater, for that matter. Good luck. Let’s be a little more realistic.
Most table wines produced today are not meant to be aged and should be consumed within a year or two. But let’s pretend that we have a good wine that has been aged 20 years. Say it’s a full-bodied Australian Cabernet Sauvignon with plenty of tannins. A wine such as this does have aging potential, but does the age make it better? In all honesty, it depends on whoever is drinking it.
Wine does not get better with age; it changes. Our Aussie Cab may have been a great, full-bodied red with lots of plum and chocolate notes, some nice vanilla and plenty of tannins when it was first bottled. But 20 years is a long time. Those tannins would mellow out, the fruity plum and chocolate flavours might change to an earthy, grassy taste, and the vanilla would dissipate into an oaky note. To some drinkers, the 20-year-old wine doesn’t sound as appealing as it did when it was a young whippersnapper. In the end, it’s a matter of style. If you like dry, earthy wines, that Aussie Cab has gotten better. If you like your wine fruity and fresh, that Cab is destined for the sink drain.
Wine isn’t static. It changes with every minute. If you open a bottle of wine today, it will taste different than if you open it a year later, a month later or even a day later. Before you start aging your wine, make sure you know what you are getting into. Pouring a $50 bottle out into your toilet is not a happy experience.
The wine for today is Lo Tengo 2005 (about $11.75). This is a nice, medium-bodied Malbec from Argentina. The nose has a nice fruity smell with a good dose of cherry. The wine has a little tannin and some nice acidity that brings a great balance to the plum and cherry flavours. This is an excellent food wine and should go nicely with red meats, pasta in tomato sauces and, surprisingly, a good homemade hamburger. This wine isn’t one that you would age for longer than a year or two, unless you are making red wine vinegar.
Today’s beer is to help us get through the last few days of winter. Dragon Stout (300 ml - $1.71/btl at the MLCC) is perfect for that cold night. This is a jet black ale from Jamaica with one interesting characteristic. It is very sweet. It has a warm chocolaty taste, with a nice, light malt background. It’s alcohol content is 7.5 per cent, and it is a little hot initially, but it quickly fades and goes down smoothly. Enter the dragon!
