Wine Tip #9 – When Should I Drink My Wine?
This is a great question and can cause a great deal of confusion for the majority of pleasure seeking wine drinkers. I’m not going to get into storing or collecting wine in this post, that is a subject all on its own I’m not read to tackle.
When I first started drinking wine I believed, like many wine drinkers, that all wine got better with age. I would hold onto wine only to open it a year or two later to find it dull, flat, and gross. All wines aren’t created equal. Most wines are meant to drink right after bottling. In fact, less than 1% of wines are made to age for more than five years.
Most wines are made to be enjoyed while they are young, vibrant and fresh. Therefore, you should drink most wines after they hit the bottle to capture the wine’s best aromas and flavors.
You should drink most red wines within two to five years of the vintage/year. While most white wines within one to three years of the vintage/year. If there isn’t a year/vintage on the label, drink red wine within two years and white wine within one year of purchasing.
For the wines that you plan on drinking a year or two from now, make sure you store them on their side to keep the cork moist, fully plump and air tight (with the exception of sparkling wines and screwtop lids), in a cool spot, preferably dark, away from harsh lights or artificial lighting, temperature fluctuations, heat, sunlight, any vibration, and chemical odors or strong smells. Invest in a nice wine storage cooler.
Refrain from storing unopened wine on your counter, especially in the sunlight. Recork and refrigerate.
Also, let wine sit and settle for 24 to 48 hours that has been shipped or that’s been in transit. Lastly, for wines you plan on holding on to longer than a few months, try not to purchase it if it has been sitting under artificial or well-lit shelves. Ask for a bottle that is still in the storage room, boxed up.
The best temperature for storing wine is 55% but a constant temperature between 53 and 60 is good too. Ideal humidity is 75%. Some people prefer it more or less.
A fun little tasting tip: if you have a wine from two separate vintages save them for your next tasting experiment and taste them at the same time. Also, experiment with temperature. First, taste the wine directly from the bottle before chilling, then put the remaining wine in the refrigerator or bring down using a VacuVin rapid ice wine cooler and try it again. You will be completely surprised at what you find.
Why Does My Wine Smell Like Ass?
All joking aside, have you ever been really excited to try a new wine only to be incredibly disappointed, never mind horrified, when you discover the nose on the wine smells like a barnyard, leather, gasoline, kerosene, chalk, grass, cat urine or worse…shit or a combination of all? This experience has happened to me on more than one occasion.
Your Nose Knows:
When tasting wines we use all of our five senses but the smelling part of wine, according to Master Sommelier Alpana Singh, is the most important part of tasting wine because 70% of what you can learn about wine comes through your sense of smell. Not to mention that so many of our drinking preferences start with our nose. For instance, I hate floral smells, even in my perfume, they make me really nauseous really fast. If a wine has anything remotely close of a floral smell, I’m out.
Wines come in two forms: fruit forward and earth forward. As you can guess, a fruit forward wine describes wines that smells are associated with fruit. An earth forward wine describe wines wines that smells are associated with dirt. When smelling wines you want to try and describe three fruits or vegetables you smell or try to identify three things you can smell, two is good, but three is great.
The “nose” is what us wino’s refer to as the smell, aroma or bouquet of a wine. Each wine is unique and the smell really helps one to identify things such as what part of the world and what type of soil a grape was grown from.
When I first started drinking wine and heard these terms or was asked to describe the flavors I tasted in my wine, I couldn’t. I couldn’t smell or taste anything. For a long time, I even thought they infused fruit into wine to get those smells.
Recently though, I’ve started smelling things around my house and at the grocery store to create a data base of words that everyone can relate to in an attempt to explain what I was smelling and tasting (you can easily see how I figured out the smell of ass using this technique 
). What is even more interesting is terroir and that each soil has a “flavor” to it and produces grapes that carry those characteristics but that is for another blog.
So here are some smells to help identify the wine your drinking. Of course, you can make up your own list and I recommend that you do.
Fruit – peach, cherry, plum, pineapple, mango, blackcurrant
Vegetable – asparagus, sweet pepper, cabbage, olive, celery, beets, grass
Herb – sage, marjoram, lavender, thyme, tea leaves
Spice – black pepper, clove, licorice, nutmeg, cinnamon
Floral – lime or orange blossom, rose, elderflower, violet, clover
Toasted – nuts, caramel, butter, vanilla, coffee, cocoa, smoky, chocolate
Animal – leather, cat urine, damp fur, barnyard
There are some exceptions. For example, last week I participated in a New Zealand wine tasting and unfortunately I didn’t really like any of the wines that I tried. They were more earth forward, herbacious, vegetal aromas and flavors that I didn’t really care for just by smell. I remained open and did find one wine, Envoy 2007 Riesling, by Spy Valley that while the nose smelled like kerosene or gasoline, the taste was delightful. It was in my mind more of a port because it was very sweet. I prefer dryer wines to sweeter wines, but I would purchase this wine as a desert wine for my own personal preference. So while a wine might not smell very good, there is chance it can taste good. Not all the time, but it does happen. You will always be the best judge of whether a wine tastes good for you.
As for the ass smell, it is all about the soil and doesn’t mean the wine is cheap at all. As my wine drinking, twitter companion Doug says, @FredaMooncotch to @dougieslap: “I don’t think it is necessarily cheap, it is the soil it is grown in. What do you think?” @dougieslap response: “Sure is. Yes the soil, and how the tannins mature. French wines tend to be really earthy/assy. So are some Italian wines. Tannins have a lot to do with how wine tastes and matures. Ass=earthiness.” There you have it!
Since smell is so important I want to spend quite a bit of time going through the “How To” of tasting wine. Next post I will explain the 5 steps on how to taste wine.
Download and print The Wine Wench’s Tasting Notes Guide to enhance your wine drinking experience.
Wine Tip #2 – Blind Tastings For The Seeing
Ok, no I’m not talking about wine tastings for the visually impaired, I’m talking about those educational exercises that every wino should make a habit of participating in on a regular basis to develop their palate and get outside their comfort zone.
Having some friends over for a little get together and your not quite sure what wine to serve with all your friends different tastes? Live on the edge this weekend and experiment by hosting a blind wine tasting, it is actually quite fun and educational. Have each of your guests pick up a bottle or two their favorite wine or better yet something new that falls in under their preferences. Emphasize price points, meaning that each person should bring one less expensive wine and one more expensive wine. Each wine should be placed in brown paper bags so no one can see the labels. You may even consider writing and taping the cost of the wine on the bottle before they place in brown paper bag, it is important that each person remembers what their wine cost.
Now the fun, taste each wine and discuss it as best as you can. When you’ve tasted and noted all the wines, remove the bags to reveal the wines and the cost of each. Did you find that more expensive wines taste better or that less expensive wines taste better? What other things did you notice?
Eh hem, on a side note, you might want to offer tasting notes guide for your guests to take notes on each wine because at the end of the 
night there might not be anyone left standing or who even makes sense and you might have to do the entire experiment over again!
You can do this in themes: red only, a white only, Spanish only or whatever you decide. Also, this makes a great date or game night with your partner or spouse or great way to set up friends.
Back to the blind part…if you are single and there are other singles there, it is quite possible that you might, according to how much wine you taste, visually impaired enough to find someone attractive that you otherwise wouldn’t have noticed or paid attention to! Now I’m not encouraging drunk dating, but hey, you never know what happens when you let your guard down!
I leave you with this thought, I wouldn’t recommend actually blindfolding any of your guests as this could get really messy after a few glasses. I’m just saying. Now maybe you and your partner but that is another blog.
To enhance your wine tasting experience, download a copy of our wine tasting guide/sheet: The Wench’s Wine Tasting Notes
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