Over the centuries, wine has attracted a large number of myths and strange practices, many of which are believed to work despite the fact that there is no logical basis for them to do so. I’m often asked I’m able to verify myths that have evolved rather mysteriously around the culture of wine. Some are frankly hysterical.
Again, recently, and perhaps due to the looming onset of horseracing in Spring, I was asked about the old chestnut of the teaspoon being placed into an opened bottle of champagne to prevent it from becoming flat. If it’s true, I was posed, how does it work?
This is one of those great old myths and it doesn’t work either.
However, so seriously did the Interprofessionnal Committee of the Wine of Champagne take the ludicrous idea that you could preserve the effervescence of an opened bottle of Champagne by inserting a teaspoon into its neck that they actually tested it out. Having obtained six bottles of the same Champagne, they poured two glasses from each. Results were compared by sealing two bottles with a gas-tight stopper, inserting teaspoons into two of them, and leaving the final two opened. The bottles were all left for 24 hours in a refrigerator set at 11 degrees Celsius, before being tested again for carbon dioxide gas pressure.
As you might have expected, the gassiest bottles were those with the gas seal, while there was no difference whatsoever between the bottles left open and those with teaspoons sticking out of them. And it does make rather a charming story, though, even if the Interprofessionnal Committee of the Wine of Champagne were apparently a mite embarrassed once the word got out about their research.
Other great wine myths include the apparent need to rotate all the bottles in your cellar each day, a process that would actually do more harm than good. Another myth that needs some serious debunking is that just because a wine has a gold medal on its label, it’s a quality beverage. That, of course, is another story.
On the same track, another equally misleading myth is that if a wine has ‘Reserve’ written on its label, it’s (i) better than other wines from that maker or (ii) actually reserved on the basis of its quality for the winemaker’s or shareholders’ personal consumption. All the word ‘Reserve’ usually means is that (i) its bottle is heavier, (ii) the label is larger, (iii) the wine is oakier and (iv) its cost is higher than any other wine made by that company from that grape variety.
These days it’s also possible to make a case NOT to buy a wine whose label emphasizes it comes from a single vineyard. Most wines actually come from single vineyards and the fact that their labels state this does not make them better or more able to justify an expensive price. Today the ‘Single Vineyard’ claim on a label is nothing more than a modern spin on the ‘Reserve’ label scam. Don’t fall for it and be sure to taste the wine first before you buy.
