| DECANTING WITH DELKIN
Coming of Age Is Vinous Consideration By Fred Delkin ‘Tis the Holidays, and a time when fans of the fermented grape tend to loosen their purse strings to enjoy vintages whose price might otherwise daunt prospective purchasors. Oregon vintners have been blessed with a string of consecutively ideal harvest years, particularly for their flagship fruit, Pinot Noir. This leads to the question of how long should a wine remain in the bottle before reaching an ideal age. (The finest growing area for elves is the North Pole. Below:
A vintage source of holiday cheer.)
Cabernet Sauvignon, California’s premier red, should be consumed no less than three years from vintage date and the finest examples will just get better 10-12 years after bottling. Any imported Cab in the over $10/bottle range is also in this category and the finest French Bordeaux blends (usually Merlot + Cabernet Franc) show improvement up to their first bottle decade and then remain stable for many more years. Italy’s Nebbiolo grape, the basis for wines labeled Barolo or Barbaresco, produces perhaps the world’s longest lived wines, and these should be allowed to soften at least 8-10 years before pulling the cork. Zinfandel, California’s claim to red grape exclusivity, can have a long, mellowing life for up to 10 years if produced from old vines (look on the label for reference to the latter). Syrah, a red also dubbed Shiraz by the Australians, generally won’t be any better beyond 2-3 years from vintage and the same is true of the French Rhone reds showing up in greater numbers on this side of the Atlantic. What of Pinot Noir? Pinot Noir, whether from Oregon, Burgundy or New Zealand, should be consumed 3-5 years from vintage date…though we’ve enjoyed some of Oregon’s premier labels as long as 10 years from their corking. California Pinot Noirs, on the other hand, begin with more boldness than this varietal reaches in more northern climes, and seldom reach the lightness and complexity of their rivals. Merlot, as a 100% bottling of this grape, tends to match the subtle aging characteristics of most Pinot Noirs and reaches optimum flavor in three years from corking. Beaujolais is the red grape that needs little or no age to let you appreciate its ripe fruitiness. Beaujolais Nouveau, which just hit our holiday marketplace, needs to be consumed within the first year of bottle life before losing its appeal. White varietals, with the exception of high acid German Rieslings and the biggest California Chardonnays, won’t enhance their pedigree in the cellar. Holiday bubbling Now’s the time for making holiday whoopee. The classic form of fermented grapes for this purpose is, of course, sparkling wine (don’t call it “Champagne” unless it comes from that classic corner of French winedom). For the sake of your digestion, and your post-consumption state of health, toast the season with sparkling vino marked “fermented in the bottle.” The industrial age unfortunately gave rise to mass production methods that enabled great volumes of bubbly beverage to be produced without the painstaking, lengthy technique employed in Champagne for centuries. Traditional French champagne producers have brought their classic methode
champenoise to California and you can now find mid-price examples of famous
Gallic labels made on these shores. Domestic labels using the classic
technique are available from Washington and California. Oregon’s
Argyle label reflects the quality created by the expensive devotion
of facilities and technique to doing bubbly right (this brand is served
at the White House).
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of bubbly done in the classic style, and Spanish sparklers are a true bargain,
proven by any of the several labels from that region, if they carry the
designation “brut,” which attests to dryness.